A review by hikemogan
The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy by Tim Pat Coogan

4.0

Tim Pat Coogan's book on the Irish famine will enrage and prompt readers to study further. While he truly makes a case that a genocide was perpetrated on the Irish people under the pretext of hardcore laissez faire economics, what struck me are the parallels between what the British attempted in the 1840s and what many colonial powers throughout the world have done to their victims (native Americans at the hands of European and American powers; myriad African ethnic groups at the hands of European and then African regimes; Koreans at the hands of the Japanese; etc.). Famine is a complex tool of cold (and traditional) wars throughout history that allow the powerful to absolve themselves through rhetorical and economic slights of hand.