Rot by Padraic X Scanlan

Description

Rot by Padraic X Scanlan

In the 1800s, as Britainbecame the world’s most powerfulindustrial empire, Ireland starved.The Great Famine fractured long-held assumptions about politicaleconomy and ‘civilisation’, threateningdisorder in Britain. Ireland wasa laboratory for empire, shapingBritish ideas about colonisation,population, ecology and work.In Rot, Padraic Scanlan reinterpretsthe history of this time and the resultis a revelatory account of Ireland’sGreat Famine. In the first half of thenineteenth century, nowhere in Europe- or the world- did the working poordepend as completely on potatoes asin Ireland. To many British observers,potatoes were evidence of a lack ofmodernity among the Irish. However,Ireland before the famine more closelyresembled capitalism’s future thanits past. While poverty before andduring the Great Famine was oftenblamed on Irish backwardness, it didin fact stem from the British Empire’sembrace of modern capitalism.Uncovering the disaster’s rootsin Britain’s deep imperial faithin markets and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of theFamine and its tragic legacy.