{"product_id":"rot-an-imperial-history-of-the-irish-famine-9781541601543","title":"Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"stunning\" (Maya Jasanoff, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dawn Watch\u003c\/i\u003e) and revelatory new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland's most infamous disaster\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight's devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eRot\u003c\/i\u003e, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland's place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland's overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire's laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland's wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire's embrace of modern capitalism. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Uncovering the disaster's roots in Britain's deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, \u003ci\u003eRot \u003c\/i\u003ereshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePadraic X. Scanlan\u003c\/b\u003e is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora \u0026amp; Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. His writing has appeared in the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eNew Inquiry\u003c\/i\u003e. The author of two previous books, he lives in Toronto.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Basic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51187348701458,"sku":"9781541601543","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ca10bd14-ed8c-43eb-a17a-fe97c4fc7087.jpg?v=1744640762","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/rot-an-imperial-history-of-the-irish-famine-9781541601543","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}