Seeds of Revolution The Culture and Politics of the Great Famine in the Irish Northwest

by Vincent, Joan

• ISBN13: 9780312239961
• ISBN10: 0312239963
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2019-12-31
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Seeds of Revolution presents a radically new and original perspective on the Great Irish Famine. Drawing on social, political and medical history, anthropology, and literature, the volume explores the "political orchestration" of what is generally considered one of the great natural disasters of recent times. Focusing on official British famine relief policy and practice, the book examines the implementation, reception and, in some cases, the rejection of famine relief policy by both the Irish Executive in Dublin and the local people in the Irish northwest. In the process, the study shows how the famine was used to advance professional and political agendas, and to solidify new class divisions.

Author Biography

Joan Vincent is Professor Emerita, Barnard College, Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Beginnings

The Dialectics of Reform

Modernity and Distress

Poor Law Impositions: Legislating Modernity

The Crisis of November 1845

Interventions

Feeding the Hungry and Paying the Price

Private Enterprise

Black '47

'The Earth is Softened for the Grave'

The Workhouse System under Siege

The Medico-Moral Dilemma

Shallows and Silences

Dangerous Supplements

Poor Law Desolation Disillusion/Dissolution

The Other Side of Silence

The Grey Years

The Terror of the Possible (1848)

Dublin Castle: The Poor Law under Siege

Aftermath

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