Description
Book SynopsisLooks at the ways that disparate groups used Irish famine relief in the 1840s to advance their own political agendas
Famine brought ruin to the Irish countryside in the nineteenth century. In response, people around the world and from myriad social, ethnic, and religious backgrounds became involved in Irish famine relief. They included enslaved Black people in Virginia, poor tenant farmers in rural New York, and members of the Cherokee and Choctaw nations, as well as plantation owners in the US south, abolitionists in Pennsylvania, and, politicians in England and Ireland. Most of these people had no personal connection to Ireland. For many, the famine was their first time participating in distant philanthropy.
Aiding Ireland investigates the Irish famine as a foundational moment for normalizing international giving. Anelise Hanson Shrout argues that these diverse men and women found famine relief to be politically useful. Shrout takes readers from Ireland to
Trade Review
An important addition to famine historiography. Shrout has produced a rigorous and excellent analysis of the complex relationship between international philanthropy and the Irish famine. -- Christine Kinealy, Emmy-award winner of The Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora
In this elegant, meticulously-researched book, Anelise Shrout uncovers the ways in which international charitable responses to a nineteenth-century catastrophe in Ireland were rooted in local concerns and anxieties. Aiding Ireland is landmark work on the birth pains of global philanthropy. -- Cian T. McMahon, author of The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine
Aiding Ireland is an important contribution to the growing literature on the history of philanthropy. It not only examines a significant chapter in transnational giving, but also explores the underlying agendas that surrounded donations by groups such as slaves and Native Americans, broadening our understanding of the breadth and uses of philanthropy in the United States. -- Kathleen McCarthy, author of American Creed: Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society
An impressive and valuable contribution to both Irish history as well as the history of international philanthropy. -- David Gleeson, Northumbria University, Newcastle
In Aiding Ireland, historian Anelise Hanson Shrout addresses [the motivations behind humanitarian aid] in relation to the transnational philanthropic response to the Great Famine. Her convincing study explores why people from so many places and backgrounds donated, and reveals their underlying agendas. Without minimising the generosity of donors, she complicates prevalent and often simplistic narratives about famine-era philanthropy … a well-argued and highly welcome monograph that offers a compelling account of the political and ideological dimensions of humanitarian aid during the Famine. * The Irish Times *
