The writers in this text seek to reconcile the established critical perspectives of Irish studies with a forward-looking critical momentum that incorporates the realities of globalisation and economic migration.

The Irish famine of the 1840s is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the United Kingdom's history. Within six years of the arrival of the potato blight in Ireland in 1845, more than a quarter of its residents had unexpectedly died or emigrated. Its population has not yet fully recovered since. Historians have struggled to explain why the British government decided to shut down its centrally organised relief efforts in 1847, long before the famine ended. Some have blamed the laissez-faire attitudes of the time for an inadequate response by the British government; others have alleged purposeful neglect and genocide. In contrast, this book uncovers a hidden narrative of the crisis, which links policy failure in Ireland to financial and political instability in Great Britain. More important than a laissez-faire ideology in hindering relief efforts for Ireland were the British government's lack of a Parliamentary majority from 1846, the financial crises of 1847, and a battle of ideas over monetary policy between proponents and opponents of financial orthodoxy. The high death toll in Ireland resulted from the British government's plans for intervention going awry, rather than being prematurely cancelled because of laissez-faire. This book is essential reading for scholars, students and anyone interested in Anglo-Irish relations, the history of financial crises, and why humanitarian-relief efforts can go wrong even with good intentions.

Histories of the Irish Future is an intellectual history of Ireland and a history of Irish crises viewed through the eyes of twelve key writers: William Petty, William Molyneux, Edmund Burke, Thomas Malthus, Richard Whately, Friedrich Engels, John Mitchel, James Connolly, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Jeremiah Newman, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Fintan O'Toole. Their analyses of the shifting conditions of Ireland and their efforts to address Ireland's predicaments are located within the wider social, political, economic and cultural anxieties of their times. The result is a pioneering interdisciplinary contribution to modern Irish history and Irish Studies that will appeal to students of politics, economic history, and philosophy.