This compelling new look at one of the worst disasters to strike humankind--the Great Irish Potato Famine--provides fresh material and analysis on the role that nineteenth-century evangelical Protestantism played in shaping British policies and on Britain's attempt to use the famine to reshape Irish society and character.

The savage shore : three Englishmen in Ireland -- The news from Ireland -- "The Irish can live on anything" -- Want -- The hanging of Bryan Serry -- The lord of providence -- The great and glorious cause of Ireland -- The mandate of heaven -- A sermon for Ireland -- Snow -- The queen's speech -- Pestilence -- Atonement -- "I shall arise and go now" -- Yankee doodle dandy -- Catastrophe and its consolations.