The Irish Famine

by Colm Tóibín, Diarmaid Ferriter

Overview

This unique volume, comprising Colm Tóibín's acclaimed short text and a linked collection of key documents put together by one of Ireland's leading younger historians, offers a many-sided view of one's of history's most poignant and far-reaching catastrophes. This book will allow the reader to understand the complex way in which the fragmentary past is both available to us ... and distant from us.' We get those insights from Tóibín's short history and from a rich collection of documents -- government papers, recipes, journalism, letters, statistics, personal statements, all linked so the book can be read as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781861974600
Publisher:	IPS - Profile Books
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,025,408
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at University College, Dublin. He is the author of the acclaimed and best-selling Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000. Colm Tóibín is the author of four novels (The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker) and also a book about Catholic Europe.

Editorial Reviews

'Unusual and fascinating' --Sunday Independent (Dublin)

'Colm Tobin's opening essay [is] quite outstanding ... a very model of wisdom, of profound moral engagement and of scholarship, the very same qualities which inspired Diarmaid Ferriter's choice of documents. This small but brilliant book reaches right into the heart of the most tragic period in Irish history. I recommend it unreservedly.' - Spectator

From the Publisher