Rot - by Padraic X Scanlan (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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 by starvation and forcing millions more to emigrate. In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how British imperialism left Ireland 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. British officials refused to send aid, believing 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. Uncovering the disaster's roots in Britain's deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot completely reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy"--

Book Synopsis

A "vigorous and engaging" (Fintan O'Toole, New Yorker) new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland's most infamous disaster

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.

In Rot, 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.

Uncovering the disaster's roots in Britain's deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.

Review Quotes

"Comprehensive, elegantly written, and heartbreaking."--Nation

"A brilliant and engaging analysis...There are valuable lessons here not just about the past but for the future as well...Rot is narrative history at its best."--Air Mail

"A disturbing and insightful account of the Irish famine."--Financial Times

"An exceptional account of a crippling, long-ago blight... With its stunning wealth of argumentation, Rot delivers a knockout punch."--Washington Independent Review of Books

"Scanlan has crafted a vivid, colourful narrative that does full justice to the Famine's human horror."--Irish Independent

"Undoubtedly a history title of the year."--Wall Street Journal

"A vigorous and engaging new study of the Irish Famine...Above all, Rot reminds us that the Great Hunger was a very modern event, and one shaped by a mindset that is now again in the ascendant."--Fintan O'Toole, New Yorker

"[Rot] engagingly conveys and analyzes the harrowing history of an abused and colonized people during famine. Will resonate with a broad readership."--Library Journal

"A fine history."--Kirkus

"Rot brilliantly blends economic, social, and environmental history to deliver a stunning new account of one of nineteenth-century Europe's most shameful tragedies. Padraic Scanlan joins clear-eyed, comprehensive research and analysis to deliver a persuasive indictment of faith in free markets. As illuminating as it is harrowing, Rot is a must-read for anybody interested in the histories of capitalism and empire."--Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch

"Rot is a moving modern history of the Great Potato Famine. With great insight and impeccable research, Padraic X. Scanlan vividly brings this terrible catastrophe and the stories of its heroes and villains back to life."--Tyler Anbinder, author of City of Dreams

"Rot is a book I have longed to read. Framing the Irish Famine within the context of the British empire is revelatory. An incredibly important work."--Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireworld

"Crisply written and based on an impressive range of contemporary sources, Padraic Scanlan's Rot is the best kind of historical writing--the kind that makes you want to sit down for a long discussion with the author. British observers saw the Irish famine as a case of a premodern society paying the price of its backwardness. In reality, Scanlan argues, its vulnerability arose because it was a precocious forerunner of the sort of ruthlessly competitive, export-oriented market economy that today blights the lives of millions around the globe. Rot is essential reading for anyone wanting to see Ireland's traumatic experience placed in an international context."
--Sean Connolly, author of On Every Tide

About the Author

Padraic X. Scanlan is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, and the New Inquiry. The author of two previous books, he lives in Toronto.