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

I just finished reading Black Potatoes and I loved it! It was easy to read and kept me turning the pages, which is a lot to say about a book about an Irish Potato Famine. I'm not a history buff or a lover of Ireland or anything. This author just did a really good job making a potentially dry subject into a fascinating one.I bought the book because the Look Inside on amazon was interesting and easy to read. What you see in the Look Inside is a good idea of what the entire book is like.I am planning on homeschooling and I wanted to get the book for that. I think it would be great for maybe middle school, but I plan to start earlier and reading it aloud.Some parts are very sad, especially about the hunger, but the author also highlights positive things, like the brother who gave a whole loaf of bread to his little brother self-lessly.It paints England as helping, but also worrying about their bottom line. They almost begrudgingly give Ireland help because they think they brought it on themselves or that the Irish should pay the brunt of it. But they do give money, not that it helps much. It seems that people who are not the poorest of the poor, do not quite understand exactly how bad things are for them. For example, when a man was trying to rally an army, he told them to get 3 days worth of bread and biscuits and didn't understand why many didn't come back. They didn't have 3 days worth of food.It seemed like the poorest class was the worst off, with the middle and upper classes doing better. The troubles for the landlords was not as much income, whereas the troubles for the laborers was not having food to eat. This book mainly focused on the worst conditions, painting the landlords mostly as heartless for putting the poor out of their houses.Overall, it gives a good history and makes me feel like I understand a little bit more about the world.

Enjoyed the book and it's ability to give an overview of the period. Covering mostly the human side of the miserable predicament points up the reasons, possibly solutions, and the failure of those solutions to resolve the crisis. Easy reading and logically written to pass on the overview. Enlightening.

From the moment I got it I was addicted. I started reading it when I laid down to sleep in the morning since I work the night shift.I lost out on two hours of sleep before I finally decided I had to put it down and get some sleep. Very well written and informative. I like that the author also went into a discussion about the prior history between Ireland and Britain. I am a lot more understanding of the IRA after reading this book (not that I condone what they do today, I am just saying i get some of the reasoning). Understanding the Irish potato famine is why I bought this book and it does a very good job of explaining what happened without going into useless details that could have made it a 5 or 600 page book.

This was difficult reading because of the topic and learning of the suffering. The story was well written and easy to follow. There is no good ending. It's hard to imagine the British government could allow such suffering and disaster. Very unsympathetic people in charge.

This is an excellent book. Susan Bartoletti presented the information about the Irish Potato Famine in a coherent and very readable way. Although the book was written for young people I found it to be a good read for all ages.

Growing up in a family of full Irish descent on both parents backgrounds (and with one of the 3 great grandparents who lived with us, my maternal great grandfather Mathew (Matty) Manmohan having come from Ireland at the time of the Troubles (1917), I was no stranger to stories of the Famine. Nonetheless, the impact of this book and its concentration of stories, anecdotes, news articals, and historical sketches and documents, was powerful and dramatic. The ability to treat starvation of a majority of a nation's populous as first an economic problem whose possible paths for relief were inconsistent with England's policy of laissez fair - and thus one nation's leadership simply makes decision to allow over a million Irish people to die of starvation, malnourishment and the diseases that ravish malnourished folk - to say nothing of encouraging the diaspora of 2 - 2 1/2 million people (where again approximate 15-20℅ of the steerage passengers died during the voyage).is shocking to read about, much less realize most of your ancestors were personally affectd by these policies and events. And when they arrived in America, Canada, England and Australia they were met with NINA ( No Irish Need Apply) it is a history lesson important to learn from.

One of the great tragedies of the 19th century. An estimated one million dead and two million displaced. Sadly, this book reveals that it didn't really have to happen, and least not to the degree that it did.This book was written for teen readers allegedly, which may explain why it is heavy with fact but rather light on detail. Nonetheless, it is interesting and entertaining with many interesting illustrations. You could finish this in a day if you were so inclined

For someone looking for a strong introduction to what happen during the famine this is great. I completely recomend this is a great starting point.

Liked the candid way the book was written.Got the information I required.

Not worth the money spent on it. It is NOT a history book and is clearly meant for a general audience that wouldn't be too demanding. It even contains mistakes (for instance Lamartine wasn't "the new French president" in March 1848 - he was the head of the government, was actually defeated at the following presidential election, gave up politics and therefore never became president). The reader learns very little - if he learns anything or isn't t given false information.

Lot of good information in this little book. We've all heard of the Irish potato famine, but did we really know when it happened or what it was all about and the causes? This book fills in a lot of the spaces without going into a lot of deeper,boring stuff. Nicely illustrated throughout. Would recommend to anyone of Irish ancestry and wanting to know a little more of their background.

An excellent piece of work and very well researched. Excellent illustrations of the day with careful editting to take the reader to those difficult and extremely sad years.Suitable for all ages/people who have an interest in lrish history. If l have one criticism, it was at times very anti-English. I understand that many if the British Govt. were guilty of atrocious crimes against humanity, but the poor people in England were hardly any better off.Nevertheless, l would recommend this book, which is beautifully presented.

we are a cruel speces...