Description: Cormac Ö Gráda unites historical research with economic theory in this original and stimulating book, which will be essential reading for all students of Irish history. Within a broadly chronological framework, Ireland offers a fresh, comprehensive examination of all the well-known puzzles of Irish economic history including the inevitability of the Famine, the role of land tenure in agricultural backwardness, and the failure of the economy to industrialize. O'Gráda's account is both accessible, with technical discussion kept to a minimum, and intellectually exciting.
Review Quotes: "Fortunately, the new economic history of Ireland is championed by a scholar whose remarkable command of its theories, methods, and scholarship is enhanced by his willingness and ability to step away from the dispassionate layers of statistical complexities to infuse his work with passion and compassion for the people who lived, died, emigrated, prospered, and suffered in Ireland."--Journal of Economic History
"[The author] has not only thoroughly surveyed, mastered, and interpreted the work of other practitioners in the field, but he has also assembled data from his own formidable excursions into Irish demography and economic performance in an exemplary manner."--The Albion"O Grada argues convincingly..."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History"[H]as written a work of extraordinary depth and clarity that will serve as an authoritative text for several decades."--HISTORY"The strorytelling in this book is lively....[The book is] an earthier, more authentic history of the Irish peoples."--American Historical Review