Rot

An Imperial History of the Irish Famine

By: Padraic X. Scanlan

Narrated by: Stephen Hogan

A revelatory new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland’s most infamous disaster.

“Vigorous and engaging.” —Fintan O’Toole, The New Yorker

In 1845, European potato fields were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million dead and forcing millions more to emigrate. In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers a new account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in 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. And when famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish.

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.

Critic reviews

“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

“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 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

Sharp and comprensive

Strongly researched with very effective testimonials statistics facts. A deeply upsetting story that extends far beyond Ireland

Different perspective on the potato blight

Very novel approach to the tragedy in Ireland. It's more about the mind set of 19th century empire and capitalism in the United Kingdom, and how that effected the terrible problems in Ireland. The solutions were brutal, and short sighted which just broke down Irish society even more. The book is well written, and the reader is excellent.

Some new insights

Covers old territory. Some new insights. Readers who are new to the topic will find it worthwhile

Really great work of history

An excellent account of an Gorta Mor that brilliantly and correctly situates the event in the context of the emergence of a global capitalist economy under British imperial rule, a process that had similar effects throughout the world over the same period as explained in Mike Davis' Late Victorian Holocausts, which makes a great companion to this book.

Hard to follow, at times.

Frightening, if dry review of events leading up to and from the Famine. Addresses political and personal repercussions.