The Irish Famine: An Illustrated History

by Helen Litton

Why did millions of starving people seem to accept their fate without rebelling? Why did people starve beside seas and rivers stocked with plenty of fish? Helen Litton succinctly deals with the Great Famine with clarity and compassion. With quotes from first-hand accounts, and information from numerous studies and sources, both sides of the tragedy are exposed.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ireland

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Born in Dublin, Helen Litton is the editor of Kathleen Clarke’s memoir, Revolutionary Woman, and the author of 6 illustrated history books. She is married with two children. Edward Daly was Helen’s great uncle; she has also written his biography for the 16 Lives series.

Reviews

[Rowan]

Good overview. Every time descriptions seemed too awful to be real the illustrations and primary sources forced you to face the tragedy head on. Fleshed out the financial complexities that makes the Irish famine not just a matter of simple uncontrollable blight..

[Bill38silver]

Before reading this book I tried to imagine what it must have been like to be a poor starving person in poor health, trying to scrape a living in a home (or more like a hovel) with no light or sanitation, no money, no job, no prospects and with a family in similar dire straights. But my imagination could not come close to the reality for hundreds of thousands as evident from this narrative.

The author's brief-to write a short history of the tragedy listing the main events in readable form-is fully met. The narrative, full of contrasting and competing issues, but not solutions to the crisis, is simply stated and supported by numerous illustrations. Some of these are indistinct and I did not find the interspersing of extracts into the main text assisted the flow of the document. That aside, this is a straightforward introduction to a major tragedy that encourages you to read more about a scandal of human failing.

[Mari]

This was a great introductory book to understanding what went on during the Irish Famine.

[Luke Smith]

This is a really good outline of the Famine, the illustrations and extracts from diaries, letters and official documents makes the descriptions even more resonant.

[Stacey]

Well written. The story itself is devastatingly sad...

[Cara]

Good overview of the Famine with plenty of source documents and illustrations.