The Irish Famine: A Documentary

by Colm Toibin (Author), Diarmaid Ferriter (Author)

New
Paperback
2004
$18.65

This unique volume, comprising Colm Toibin's acclaimed short text and a linked collection of key documents put together by one of Ireland's leading younger historians, offers a many-sided view of one's of history's most poignant and far-reaching catastrophes. This book will allow the reader to understand the complex way in which the fragmentary past is both available to us...and distant from us. We get those insights from Toibin's short history and from a rich collection of documents - government papers, recipes, journalism, letters, statistics, personal statements, all linked so the book can be read as a whole.

Synopsis

This unique volume, comprising Colm Toibin's acclaimed short text and a linked collection of key documents put together by one of Ireland's leading younger historians, offers a many-sided view of one's of history's most poignant and far-reaching catastrophes. This book will allow the reader to understand the complex way in which the fragmentary past is both available to us...and distant from us. We get those insights from Toibin's short history and from a rich collection of documents - government papers, recipes, journalism, letters, statistics, personal statements, all linked so the book can be read as a whole.

$18.65

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 30 Sep 2004
ISBN 10: 1861974604
ISBN 13: 9781861974600

Media Reviews

Colm Tobin's opening essay [is] quite outstanding ... a very model of wisdom, of profound moral engagement and of scholarship, the very same qualities which inspired Diarmaid Ferriter's choice of documents. This small but brilliant book reaches right into the heart of the most tragic period in Irish history. I recommend it unreservedly. -- Kevin Myers * Spectator *
Unusual and fascinating * Sunday Independent (Dublin) *
Colm Toibin's opening essay [is] quite outstanding ... a very model of wisdom, of profound moral engagement and of scholarship, the very same qualities which inspired Diarmaid Ferriter's choice of documents. This small but brilliant book reaches right into the heart of the most tragic period in Irish history. I recommend it unreservedly. -- Kevin Myers * Spectator *

Author Bio

Colm Toibin is the author of four novels (The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker) and also a book about Catholic Europe. Diarmaid Ferriter is one of Ireland's best-known historians and is Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD. His books include The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (2004), Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the life and legacy of Eamon de Valera (2007), Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009) and Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s (2012). His most recent book is A Nation and not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913-23 (2015) He is a regular broadcaster on television and radio and a weekly columnist with the Irish Times. In 2010 he presented a three-part history of twentieth century Ireland, The Limits of Liberty, on RTE television.