This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52

The Irish famine of 1845-52 was the most decisive event in the history of modern Ireland and the last great sustenance crises in European history. In a country of eight million people, it caused the deaths of one million and the forced emigration of another million. This book surveys the famine, looking at the ways in which it changed things in modern Ireland. Its psychological effects were most keenly felt in the development of an anglophobic nationalism, especially among Irish emigrants to the USA, which effected the political history of 19th and 20th century Ireland. It also contributed to a sense of fatalism and despair that remained a pronounced feature of Irish life for generations.