Today QUCEH is hosting a workshop on the Great Famine of 1845-52. During the Irish Potato Famine, excess mortality exceeded one million and about one million people emigrated. Why did it happen? What could have been done to prevent the failure of the potato crop resulting in so many deaths? Joel Mokyr addressed these questions 30 years ago in Why Ireland Starved. At today's workshop, Joel Mokyr along with other famous scholars, will be revisiting the question as to why the Great Famine happened. The workshop programme is here.
The Great Hunger Memorial in Cambridge, MA |