History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!

The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.

Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but

there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.

Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.

You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!

The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!

New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.

The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.

The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.

Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.

We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.

Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.

The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.

When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.

There are no answers to simple questions:

When were these primary sources written?

Where and by whom were these sources found?

It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.

As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,

innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.

The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.

Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.

This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.

Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.

`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as

there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.

Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.

They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.

All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:

Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!

The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!

The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.

All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.

Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.

Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture

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Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture
Terry Eagleton
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

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Essential but not easy or pleasant reading.
An leabhar is fearr ar an drochshaol - riamh!

Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
Cormac O'Grada
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691070156

Amazon.com

The Irish famine of 1847 and 1848, when harvests failed and more than 3 million Irish died or were forced to emigrate, is one of the signal events of Irish history. The famine that devastated the country, notes Cormac Ó Gráda, professor of economics at University College, Dublin, was exceptional in its severity. "The cost in deaths of many highly publicized Third World famines in the recent past is modest by comparison," he writes, adding that real comparisons come only on the scale of China's catastrophic Great Leap Forward famine of 1959 to 1962 (when, Walter Becker alleges in Hungry Ghosts, 30 million Chinese died). The reason the Irish famine struck so hard, " Gráda argues, is that the Irish food supply was already tenuous; dispossessed from their land and made to rely on a single crop, the potato, the tenant agriculturists of Ireland simply had no resources or stores on which to fall back.

Important though the famine was to Ireland's history, Gráda notes, historians began to study it closely only in the last decade; in that time, dozens of books and monographs have been issued, amplifying a hitherto sparse literature. His scholarly book, heavily documented and full of statistics drawn from censuses and other demographic surveys, is itself a major contribution to historical writing on the subject. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Here Ireland's premier economic historian and one of the leading authorities on the Great Irish Famine examines the most lethal natural disaster to strike Europe in the nineteenth century. Between the mid-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, the food source that we still call the Irish potato had allowed the fastest population growth in the whole of Western Europe. As vividly described in Ó'Gráda's new work, the advent of the blight phytophthora infestans transformed the potato from an emblem of utility to a symbol of death by starvation. The Irish famine peaked in Black '47, but it brought misery and increased mortality to Ireland for several years.

Central to Irish and British history, European demography, the world history of famines, and the story of American immigration, the Great Irish Famine is presented here from a variety of new perspectives. Moving away from the traditional narrative historical approach to the catastrophe, Ó'Gráda concentrates instead on fresh insights available through interdisciplinary and comparative methods. He highlights several economic and sociological features of the famine previously neglected in the literature, such as the part played by traders and markets, by medical science, and by migration. Other topics include how the Irish climate, usually hospitable to the potato, exacerbated the failure of the crops in 1845-1847, and the controversial issue of Britain's failure to provide adequate relief to the dying Irish.

Ó'Gráda also examines the impact on urban Dublin of what was mainly a rural disaster and offers a critical analysis of the famine as represented in folk memory and tradition.

The broad scope of this book is matched by its remarkable range of sources, published and archival. The book will be the starting point for all future research into the Irish famine.

Customer Reviews:

Essential but not easy or pleasant reading........2001-02-19

Both the tragic subject and the density of documentation, with graphs and statistics, make this a hard book to read. The Famine killed over a million people, even on the most conservative estimates. It virtually wiped out the Gaeltacht. The question that resonates today is whether fewer people would have died if Ireland in 1840 had been an independent country, with its boundaries at the salt water. You'd have to read this book at least, and maybe some others as well, to get an answer to that question.

An leabhar is fearr ar an drochshaol - riamh!.......1999-05-14

This is a fraught subject, but O Grada handles it with both rigour and compassion.

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

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A Hungry History
The Horrific Blight
Horribly Brilliant
Excellent Non-fiction
A haunting history

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618548831

Book Description

In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland. Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It's the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it's also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.

Customer Reviews:

A Hungry History.......2006-03-11

An interesting and worthwhile history, made more palatable than a textbook by the extensive quotations of personal accounts and contemporary newspaper illustrations.

Broad in scope and adequate in depth, the book treats the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1850 with a sensitive, compassionate tone, spending great time on the human toll of the Famine, as well as the diseases it invited and the social upheaval it instigated.

Bartoletti vividly illustrates the dehumanizing and horrifying experience of the starving Irish, and explicitly eschews diplomacy to explore the economic and political causes. The book also explores both the (perceived or actual) maintenance and possible exacerbation of the crisis by the English government and the English landlords. Bartoletti concludes that the awkward and faltering relief was so unwillingly given because of staunchly protected laissez-faire economics as well as cultural biases and prejudice against the Irish. These factors created a political climate where merely the forecast of improvement caused the English to quit relief programs, often too soon, thus causing the situation to worsen for the Irish, creating staggering costs - in pounds as well as in lives.

Brief treatment of revolutionary activity is included, as well as interesting exposition of folk beliefs and practices.

This book avoids the "boring history" noose of more densely-written academic works, and is clearly targeted at young adults with its narrative style, but I recommend this for anyone wishing to read more deeply on this subject. Definitely written from an Irish point of view, but well researched and rich in original sources.

The Horrific Blight.......2005-12-06

What would you do if there was no food to eat, no clean clothes to wear or no shoes to wear in winter? The answers to these questions are found in Black Potatoes, which is set in Ireland in 1845 at the onset of the Potato famine. At the time of the potato famine, there were three classes of people in Ireland, the Irish farm laborers, the Irish farmers, and the English landlords. The farm laborers were the poorest, the farmers were middle class, and the landlords were the wealthy and powerful. The farm laborers and farmers rented land from the landlords and planted potatoes. When the potato famine hit, the Irish had a hard time paying their rents because of their failed crops. The Irish people had a long and enduring time during the potato famine to keep their families fed and well. The British Government came to the aid of the Irish, but many
times it was too late. The book is very Anti-British and rightfully so according to the evidence of British attitudes toward the Irish that reveal the ethnic and religious prejudices that divided the Irish and the English. The writing style of the author is very realistic and Irish everyday life is very detailed that it leaves a horrific feeling of sadness for those who lived and died during the potato famine and the years after. The pictures in the book are actual sketches obtained from various sources such as the Illustrated London News and British and Irish libraries.

Horribly Brilliant.......2004-09-13

This is an excellent summary of the Potato (note that spelling, Danny-Boy-O Quayle) Famine that plagued Ireland from 1845-1850, when the fungus Pythophthora Infestans destroyed the staple crop. Author Susan Campbell Barttoletti deftly explores the swirling pathological, sociological, political, and theological soup caused by the rotting potatoes and the aftermath. She relies on original sources and interviews with descendants of the resultant Diaspora. This book is found in the children's section of the library, but frankly, I found it hard to read myself - not because the words or concepts are difficult, but because it is so very grim - the horror! the horror! /TundraVision, Amazon reviewer.

Excellent Non-fiction.......2003-01-11

This is the best non-fiction I have ever seen. The liberal use of personal histories and stories along with illustrations from periodicals reporting the situation make this compelling and fascinating.

A haunting history.......2002-07-12

The potato blight that struck Ireland in the mid 1800s produced a nation-wide famine, resulting in "one million dead and two million who fled" to other countries, predominately the US and Canada. Countless other Irishmen, with no food, money or homes, simply disappeared. Susan Campbell Bartoletti's "Black Potatoes" recreates the era year by year from haunting contemporary newspaper illustrations, government records and first hand survivor stories, told to their children and grandchildren.

Bartoletti provides a balanced account of the economic, political and social repercussions of the blight and the ensuing famine. Food was available but the poor did not have the means to acquire it. The British government was slow to react to the devastation. Irish government officials, landowners, and shopkeepers worked to protect their own interests but, finally, in the end, contributed the greatest amount of financial support to the poor. The Friends Church, operating local soup kitchens, and American relatives, sending millions of dollars in financial support, were allies of the Irish poor during these times.

This book is a wonderful historical recounting of the time and is compelling reading for those of all ages interested in their Irish heritage. Bartoletti brings the horrors of famine and poverty to life. The 150-year old drawings, originally published in the "Illustrated London News", will stay with the reader long after the book is finished. The six-page narrative bibliography is as interesting as the story itself, and provides students and researchers with numerous sources for further study.

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"Low lie the fields of Athenry"

A Masterpiece

FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMINE

Worthwhile Reminder

Had to read it for class

The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849
Cecil Blanche Fitzgerald Woodham-Smith
Manufacturer: Penguin Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred

Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (Penguin history)

ASIN: 014014515X

Customer Reviews:

"Low lie the fields of Athenry".......2007-09-18

"By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
'Michael, they have taken you away
For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn'
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay..."

THE GREAT HUNGER is the definitive history of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849. When the Englishwoman Cecil Woodham-Smith published this book in 1962 she was vilified and branded a Communist by the British establishment which had spent the previous 120 years explaining away what is undoubtedly the greatest European famine since antiquity. Estimates of the dead are difficult to quantify. Conservative historians put the number at 1-2 million; others place it closer to 6,000,000. At least another 1.5 million Irish fled their homeland.

Like most disasters, "An Gortha Mor" seems both inevitable and avoidable in retrospect. The Irish population exploded in the first half of the 19th century reaching an official 8.2 million (and an unofficial ten million) just before the Famine. But unlike Britain, which had become heavily industrialized and was moving confidently into the modern and scientific Victorian Era, Ireland was sunk in a morass of poverty and dejection. The average Irish countryman led a life no better than the poorest serfs of Imperial Russia of the day, and the Irish were subject to all manner of legal restrictions, mass unemployment, subsistence agriculture, exploitation by landlords, and eviction at whim from the land and their homes, often just a rude mud cabin. With no education, and few skills other than potato farming, eviction meant almost certain death for husbands, wives and children. Often, they were driven even from the bogs where they'd found shelter after being put out.

The Blight, too, meant certain death for far too many. Eating nothing but potatoes and buttermilk, these most wretched people literally had nothing at all to sustain them after the crop turned into a glutinous, stinking mass of black rot. They died in droves, particularly in the poor west of Ireland, bleak and rocky Connaught. The typhus which followed killed more.

As hideous as all this seems, Cecil Woodham-Smith tells us that the Blight was only one factor in the disaster that overtook the Irish. More insidious was the attitude of the British administration which largely stayed hardset in its laissez-faire attitude, refusing to step in and feed the Irish, refusing to interfere with the free market economy of the day, and worst of all, refusing to grasp that the market economy only works when people have money or skills to trade for products and services. In 1845, Ireland was still a pre-capitalist economy, and the mercantile approach of the British simply could not be applied there; still, the British tried, and blamed their own failure to address the Famine on their convenient perceptions of Irish intransigence and laziness.

Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan may be one of the most hated figures in Ireland even to this day. Effectively the head of British efforts at Famine Relief, Trevelyan was unenamored of the Irish, he was a rock-ribbed capitalist, and, though moral and moralistic to a fault, was also just as singleminded, blind to the suffering of the populace, but fixed on promoting Irish efforts at self-help. He bought a parsimonious 100,000 Pounds Sterling worth of unmilled American corn, and doled it out to provide for the eight million Irish. Amazingly, Trevelyan kept food EXPORTS flowing out of the country at pre-Famine levels throughout (!) Nothing could interfere with trade.

A disciple of the philosopher Thomas Malthus, Trevelyan cast a cold and dispassionate eye over Ireland's circumstances, seeing them as a form of natural population control. At the same time, the British placed the country under virtual martial law, decreeing "seven long years Transportation way on down to Van Diemen's Land" (Tasmania) for minor infractions and acts of desperation (such as stealing corn).

Was this, as many have posited, an organized genocide? Certainly, there were those among the British who despised the Irish to that extent. On the other hand, if this had been an organized killing field, then why did the British do anything at all to help the Irish, little as it was?

Woodham-Smith's tales of people living in bogs, of coffinless mass funerals, of fever patients being abandoned by their terrified relations, of Ireland starving to death, cannot help but touch the reader. The British are presented as less calculating than more stupid, unable to adjust their thought processes to meet the crisis. Conditions were so awful that when the Irish left Ireland (on rotten-bottomed Coffin Ships, like as not), their arrival in American and Canadian ports can be summed up shortly: NO IRISH NEED APPLY.

More than just a history of the Potato Famine, THE GREAT HUNGER is an indictment of the too-common human propensities of blaming the victim, making gestures instead of taking action, and that of ultimately doing nothing. The truth behind every human tragedy can be found in the pages of THE GREAT HUNGER.

This is an essential read.

A Masterpiece.......2007-05-24

I have read and reread this history several times and bought copies for
my sons.

I don't believe anyone can understand the Ireland of today without
this touching and tragic reference.

FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMINE.......2006-03-16

In this account of the Famine,the author paints a picture of events which led up to ,and caused the Famine, the international poliics of the day, the weather patterns, the logistics of providing relief to so many destitute people.
Written factually and without blame it is a most interesting and informative read, I am glad I bought it.

Worthwhile Reminder.......2006-02-03

This history book reminds us that the Irish were mistreated in their homeland and in the USA when they first arrived. It tells of the heroic efforts to help the impoverished, illiterate populace and of the failed attempts by the British government to deal with a culture so foreign to their own.
It is a reminder of how far the Irish have come since the Celtic Tiger is rampant and people from Eastern Europe and the third world are going to Ireland for jobs and better lives.
Cecil Woodham-Smith is a British woman.

Had to read it for class.......2005-09-19

I had to read this novel for a college course on the British Empire. It is definitely not an easy read, but is extremely interesting if you can get through it (which I of course had to, to write a paper on it..). It is definitely one of the better assignments I have had to do.

Anyway, I just wanted to leave a comment, that I think its ridiculous that a handful of people that reviewed this book did not even realize that the book is written by a woman...

Fiction, Famine, and the Rise of Economics in Victorian Britain and Ireland (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)

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This book rocks!

Fiction, Famine, and the Rise of Economics in Victorian Britain and Ireland (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)
Gordon Bigelow
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

During the Irish Famine of 1845-52, novels by Dickens and Gaskell, as well as a range of commentaries on the Irish disaster, argued for a new theory of individual expression in opposition to the systemized approach to economic life that political economy proposed. These romantic views of human subjectivity eventually provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer.

Download Description

We now think of economic theory as a scientific speciality accessible only to experts, but Victorian writers commented on economic subjects with great interest. Gordon Bigelow focuses on novelists Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and compares their work with commentaries on the Irish Famine (1845-1852). Bigelow argues that, at this moment of crisis, the rise of economics depended substantially on concepts developed in literature. These works all criticised the systematized approach to economic life that the prevailing political economy proposed. Gradually the romantic views of human subjectivity, described in the novels, provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer. Bigelow's argument stands out by showing how the discussion of capitalism in these works had significant influence not just on public opinion, but on the rise of economic theory itself.

Customer Reviews:

This book rocks!.......2003-12-03

Two thumbs up.... way up. What a breath of fresh air in the normally stale subject matter of european, victorian economics.
I am buying one for everyone on my christmas list (kids love it).

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Reads like an economic text book
Was it Famine or Genocide?

The Great Irish Potato Famine
James S. Donnelly
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750929286

Book Description

This important book provides a full account of the famine, combining narrative, analysis, historiography, and scores of contemporary illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Reads like an economic text book .......2007-04-02

I just finished reading Mr. Donnelly's book. Admittedly it is my first one on this subject so I am not sure how it compares to others. The book it well researched, organized and written however, it wasn't what I was looking for. I thought it was interesting, however, that the British government did anything at all to help however, it was not enough, way too late, too eratic and not for long enough with disastrous consquences.
Chapter after chapter there are statistics and percentages for this county or that county and then the same thing is compare to pre-famine years then post famine years and sometimes year by year through out the famine period for instance, the importation of grain products. Too much! If you are looking for personal narratives or local stories or historical consequences around the world, Britain and Ireland this is not your book.

Was it Famine or Genocide?.......2006-09-14

Although many have heard about the "Patato Famine" in Ireland in 1845-1847; they actually know and understand very little about what happened during those few years and more importantly the effects it had on Ireland right up till the end of the 19th Century.
To understand what happened ,it is imperative that one understand the history of Ireland for at least 100 years before and know that Britain ruled totally all aspects of life in Ireland. All the laws,all the land ownership,all the imports and exports,schooling,religion,policeing,social services,government,military,and thus was responsible for things whether physically or with the people,rich,poor or in between;being the way they were when the potato crop was affected with Phytophthora Infestans in 1845 and 1846 and subsequent years.
No other disease in Europe has been written about more than this "Famine" other than The Black Death of the 1350's.As the Black Death changed forever the way of life in Europe,the "Famine" had a similar affect on Ireland.
This book attempts to cover all aspects of the "Famine" and particularly tries to resolve the question of whether the death and devastation had to be as bad as it was; whether Britain was content to allow the country to be ravished,or even if Britain's actions atually magnified the problem.In more blunt words ;"Was there really a Famine or or was it Genocide on the part of Britain?
The book contains a great amount of data,but then again the source of the information is from government controlled records.
One must read between the lines and realize that it was not the wealthy,government officials,the landowners,and the Anglo Irish,that died in huge numbers,lost their land,and emigrated to America;while Britain looked on.
Many other books on this subject leave the question still unanswered.However;that is not the view of many who have concluded what the answer really is.
Donnelly mentioned "The Great Hunger" by Cecil Whoodham-Smith.I have read that book and written a Review on October 26,2003. It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
While Donnelly's book has a great amount of data and facts;it also has a large number of excellent drawings of the period.These line drawings and colored reproductions of paintings depicting life at the time.Of the several other books I've read on the Famine;I can't recall one that is so wll illustrated.
Donnelly doesn't really conclude whether it was a Famine or Genocide--he presents the facts,issues,etc.,and leaves the conclusion to the reader.
Overall,a well researched and written book and an excellent overage of the Famine years and the results it had on Ireland.

Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger

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PART OF THE SERIES: ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG READER, THIS STUDY IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL READERS OF EVERY AGE

Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger

Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689842260

Book Description

The great Irish potato famine -- the Great Hunger -- was one of the worst disasters of the nineteenth century. Within seven years of the onset of a fungus that wiped out Ireland's staple potato crop, more than a quarter of the country's eight million people had either starved to death, died of disease, or emigrated to other lands. Photographs have documented the horrors of other cataclysmic times in history -- slavery and the Holocaust -- but there are no known photographs whatsoever of the Great Hunger.

In Feed the Children First, Mary E. Lyons combines first-person accounts of those who remembered the Great Hunger with artwork that evokes the times and places and voices themselves. The result is a close-up look at incredible suffering, but also a celebration of joy the Irish took in stories and music and helping one another -- all factors that helped them endure.

Customer Reviews:

PART OF THE SERIES: ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG READER, THIS STUDY IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL READERS OF EVERY AGE.......2007-01-30

Although this book is marketted for the middle school reader, its content and presentation makes it essential for everyone who wishes to understand the too unknown history of Ireland in the nineteenth century, in which Ireland due entirely to British imperialist policies lost four fifths of its population, as shown in this book. This book also relates the mass starvation of children to current juvenile malnutrition and death in African and other nations, and calls for us to act now to alleviate the suffering of the past. Websites are provided.

Obiovusly from this brief synopsis you can see the content of this book is quite substantial for the young reader, as necessary as it is that this history be made known. Genocidal British imperialist policies continue today, destroying children's lives in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq, with the US military as accomplices. Please read this book to understand the long history and roots of this imperial modus operandi, as this book also touches on the time of Henry VIII, of Cromwell and of the Penal Code which denied Irishmen education, land, language and religion, as the British demonized the Catholic Church as thoroughly as we now see Islam targeted, in order to rationalize its brutal genocidal policies, which led to the loss of four fifths of the Irish population.

As this book reveals, there was plenty of food in Ireland at the time of the so-called Famine, but it was all, every bit of corn, cattle, grains and other agricultural products taken to feed England under a severe sharecropping system which left Irishmen exiles and homeless and dispossessed in their own land, evicted from their own farms.

This book admirably uses primary sources and early illustrations to bring home the truth of this history. It is easily read but difficult to consider, and must be read by every Irish American, as well as everyone who cares enough to feed the starving chidlren of the world first.

Highly recommended readig for study and contemplation, and an excellent portal to further research at a more graduate academic level, of which books there are several here on the amazon.

The Irish Potato Famine (Great Disasters: Reforms and Ramifications)

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The Irish Potato Famine (Great Disasters: Reforms and Ramifications)
Carole S. Gallagher
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0791069109

The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine, and Emigration

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Shocking reading about my own ancestors.
Thorough explanation of the cause of Ireland's devistation
Very VERY comprehensive

The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine, and Emigration
Robert Scally
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195106598

Book Description

Many thousands of Irish peasants fled from the country in the terrible famine winter of 1847-48, following the road to the ports and the Liverpool ferries to make the dangerous passage across the Atlantic. The human toll of "Black '47," the worst year of the famine, is notorious, but the lives of the emigrants themselves have remained largely hidden, untold because of their previous obscurity and deep poverty. In The End of Hidden Ireland, Scally brings their lives to light. Focusing on the townland of Ballykilcline in Roscommon, Scally offers a richly detailed portrait of Irish rural life on the eve of the catastrophe. From their internal lives and values, to their violent conflict with the English Crown, from rent strikes to the potato blight, he takes the emigrants on each stage of their journey out of Ireland to New York. Along the way, he offers rare insights into the character and mentality of the immigrants as they arrived in America in their millions during the famine years. Hailed as a distinguished work of social history, this book also is a tale of adventure and human survival, one that does justice to a tragic generation with sympathy but without sentiment.

Customer Reviews:

Shocking reading about my own ancestors........2001-07-02

The trauma and distress my own ancestors went through during this famine period was horrible. In the ten year period Ballykilcline lost over 90% of its population from disease, eviction, emigration and death by starvation. My own ancestors lived in Kilglass Parish where they lost 55% of their population. Robert James Scally's book gave me a very clear understanding of what transpired from about 1835 to 1850.

Thorough explanation of the cause of Ireland's devistation.......1998-04-24

Scally does an excellent job of using historical facts to present a better picture of a devistated Ireland. Americans in particular often misunderstand the cause of the chaos usually blamed on the potato blight. In reality, the famine was only the "icing on the cake", which Scally explains well. The first half of the book is a very detailed description of Ireland in the days immediately preceeding the famine. The second half walks us through the once-green hills of a broken Ireland, passing sunken faces and hungry eyes. Scally has been accused of leaving historical fact for emotional imagination. I submit the idea that every historian must create something from imagination at some point. Although we can read facts, we must paint the scenes in our minds. This is an excellent book to read if you are already interested in "Black '47" and is also good for the serious reader who cares to explore the Emerald Isle of 150 years ago . . . this is also an important source for an Irish-American who would like to better understand his or her roots, like me. Perhaps those of us who have ties to the isle are more likely to appreciate the suffering that happened there.

Very VERY comprehensive.......1998-04-21

I give this book a "7" mostly because Scally should get a lot of credit for all the research he did for this book. It's very obvious. However, I would not recommend it if you are looking for a quick and easy read. This book is best for someone studying the famine and migration of the Irish to America.

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