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Title: Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti ISBN: 0-618-00271-5 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 29 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent Non-fiction
Comment: This is the best non-fiction I have ever seen. The liberal use of personal histories and stories along with illustrations from periodicals reporting the situation make this compelling and fascinating.
Rating: 5
Summary: A haunting history
Comment: The potato blight that struck Ireland in the mid 1800s produced a nation-wide famine, resulting in "one million dead and two million who fled" to other countries, predominately the US and Canada. Countless other Irishmen, with no food, money or homes, simply disappeared. Susan Campbell Bartoletti's "Black Potatoes" recreates the era year by year from haunting contemporary newspaper illustrations, government records and first hand survivor stories, told to their children and grandchildren.
Bartoletti provides a balanced account of the economic, political and social repercussions of the blight and the ensuing famine. Food was available but the poor did not have the means to acquire it. The British government was slow to react to the devastation. Irish government officials, landowners, and shopkeepers worked to protect their own interests but, finally, in the end, contributed the greatest amount of financial support to the poor. The Friends Church, operating local soup kitchens, and American relatives, sending millions of dollars in financial support, were allies of the Irish poor during these times.
This book is a wonderful historical recounting of the time and is compelling reading for those of all ages interested in their Irish heritage. Bartoletti brings the horrors of famine and poverty to life. The 150-year old drawings, originally published in the "Illustrated London News", will stay with the reader long after the book is finished. The six-page narrative bibliography is as interesting as the story itself, and provides students and researchers with numerous sources for further study.
Rating: 5
Summary: An extraordinary book
Comment: Susan Campbell Bartoletti, already well known for her award-winning fiction and nonfiction, has reached new heights with this book. It is clearly impeccably researched, yet never reads like a dry compilation of facts. It is by turns moving, horrifying, hopeful, and depressing. Although she points out the general indifference and (often) hostility of some government officials who could have provided some relief, she never falls into the easy trap of making anyone the villain of the terrible story of the Irish potato famine. Instead, she details the general ignorance of the cause of the blight and the sometimes well-meaning but misguided attempts of different people to remedy the situation.
Most importantly, the reader leaves feeling that this is not some strange thing that happened to unknown people a long time ago. The feeling of immediacy, and the way the reader is led to empathize with the sufferers, make it fresh and real.
Readers of "Nory Ryan's Song" who want to get the real history of this terrible time should be encouraged to read "Black Potatoes."
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Title: Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger by Mary E. Lyons ISBN: 0689842260 Publisher: Atheneum Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Great Irish Potato Famine by James S., Jr. Donnelly ISBN: 0750929286 Publisher: Sutton Publishing Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America by Edward Laxton ISBN: 0805058443 Publisher: Owl Books (NY) Pub. Date: 01 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred by Thomas Gallagher ISBN: 0156707004 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1987 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the Uss Indianapolis by Peter Nelson ISBN: 0385730918 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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