Reviews for Religion and Short History of the Sikhs - 1469 to 1930

The average rating for Religion and Short History of the Sikhs - 1469 to 1930 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-06-04 00:00:00 Betsy E Martin In the 1840s, Great Britain was the richest, most powerful nation on earth. By virtue of the Union laws of 1800 and 1801, Ireland was fully part of Great Britain, just as Scotland is. Nevertheless, when the potato crop failed in 1845 and 1846, over one million Irish died of starvation. How could this happen in the richest nation on earth? It did not happen for want of food. During the years of the great famine, Ireland was a net exporter of food, most of it going to England. Furthermore, because of laws designed to protect English traders, there were strict restrictions on the importation of food from foreign countries. A million Irish starved because they were the permanent and institutionalized underclass in their own country. Poor and landless, Irish Catholics, 80 percent of the population, subsisted on the potato, the only crop that could sustain them on the tiny plots of land allotted to them. When the blight destroyed the potato crop, the greater part of the Irish population had no food, and the ruling class did little or nothing to alleviate their situation, even though there was plenty of food and no lack of resources available with which to do so. While hundreds of thousands of Irish were starving, the absentee landlords who lived in England were exporting oats, beef, pork and other food from Ireland. Over a million Irish starved, and a like number emigrated, mostly to Canada and the United States. Many of my own ancestors were famine Irish. Inexplicably, despite the enormous impact that the famine had on both the Irish and the histories of Canada and the United States, public awareness of the event (in the United States) is virtually non-existent. Whether this is due to the passage of time or the positive relationship the U.S. has with Britain, I don't know. There are no shortage of books on the great famine. This is an old book. At times it is difficult to plow through, because it is loaded with figures, statistics and other information that would be better summarized than set forth in detail. This is not your best bet as your first book on the famine, better to find something more recent. The book also assumes a certain familiarity with the history of Ireland and in particular the history of Anglo-Irish relations, and as a result it does not present essential background into the plight of the Irish Catholics and how they found themselves in a situation where the failure of the potato crop exposed them to starvation, which is really the most important part of the story. This book, on the other hand, goes into great detail on the failure of England and Great Britain as a whole to respond appropriately to the crisis.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-23 00:00:00 Scott Persinger I'm not entirely sure who John O'Rourke is, but a quick google search tells me he is quite possibly a Catholic religious leader of some kind. Regardless, his book about the famine in Ireland in the 1840s is amazing in many ways. The book covers the possible reasons for the famine-- theories that span scientific as well as mystical. But the real meat of the book covers the way the British government chose to cope with the disaster and how it contributed to making the tragedy that much worse. O'Rourke covers nearly every angle - political, charity organizations, private citizens, journalism. The first person accounts of starvation and living conditions during the worst of the famine are absolutely heartbreaking. The writer's personality -- his sarcasm, outrage, and even respect for those individuals that made a discernible impact and effort to help -- shines through in every chapter and makes the book that much more relate-able and real. His eulogy for Daniel O'Connell made me want to know more about him. His anger at Charles Dickens' careless comments about Catholics made me reconsider my own opinion of Dickens. I enjoyed this book, and I think it was mainly because of how excellently it was written and laid out. Anyone looking for a book written maybe 30 years after the event itself, you could not do better than this.