In writing a biography of James McCarroll (1814-1892), I searched for reliable information on southern Ireland to account for why the McCarroll family chose to emigrate to Canada in 1831.

They were Protestants in a largely Catholic part of the country and Robert, James’s father, was a musician as well as a militia officer; thus, by religion and position the McCarrolls were increasingly at odds with their neighbours in County Leitrim.

Having few family records to draw on, I looked into extant newspapers and historical accounts to make sense of their uncomfortable situation. Nowhere did I find such a clear and evocative description of those turbulent, unsettled times in southern Ireland than is now available in Padraic X. Scanlan’s new and impressive study, “Rot”.

“Rot” is a detailed account and analysis of the infamous famine years and the many outbreaks of potato blight that occurred in 19th-century Ireland. The most intense years, labelled “The Great Hunger,” saw a catastrophic toll on Irish lives. Two of three people born in Ireland in the 1830s were either killed by the famine or were forced to emigrate to places like North America, Britain or Australia.

Writing in the Marxist historical tradition, Scanlan covers the years leading up to the devastating famines of the 1840s, the major famine years themselves (1846-49) and the overall effects of the crisis in subsequent decades. While attending closely to the British government’s negligent attitude to the problems of southern Ireland, he provides vivid accounts of the suffering and deaths experienced by the poor Irish and the British government’s mismanagement of the Irish economy.

Much of the underlying problem had to do with land ownership in Ireland and prevailing economic outlooks in the British government during the 19th century. At mid-century, fewer than 4,000 wealthy........

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