Reviews for The Man Behind the Miracle

The average rating for The Man Behind the Miracle based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-23 00:00:00 Stephen Turner During the winter of 1847-48-"Black '47"-when the potato famine ravaged Ireland, the town of Ballykilcline, County Roscommon, was hit hard. The problem "was above all about food, and therefore about land." Hopelessly behind in paying their rent, the tenant-farmers rebelled. Those who had taken advantage of an offer from their landlord, Major Mahon, and left for Canada perished en route. News of the disaster reached Ballykilcline and Mahon was murdered. Recriminations followed about "Papist plots" on the landlord's side met by stalwart resistance on the part of the tenants. This study of the Irish land system and the effects of the great famine shows how the land was divided; the influence of the "Gentlemen and the Squireens"; the hatred of the peasants for the "drivers"-the landlords' rent collectors and evicters; and the peasants' eventual emigration (paid for by the British crown) and their new lives in the United States. Scally is professor of history and director of the Glucksman Ireland House at New York University. His account will be of particular interest to academicians. Illustrated. Scally does an excellent job of using historical facts to present a better picture of a devistated Ireland. Americans in particular often misunderstand the cause of the chaos usually blamed on the potato blight. In reality, the famine was only the "icing on the cake", which Scally explains well. The first half of the book is a very detailed description of Ireland in the days immediately preceeding the famine. The second half walks us through the once-green hills of a broken Ireland, passing sunken faces and hungry eyes. Scally has been accused of leaving historical fact for emotional imagination. I submit the idea that every historian must create something from imagination at some point. Although we can read facts, we must paint the scenes in our minds. This is an excellent book to read if you are already interested in "Black '47" and is also good for the serious reader who cares to explore the Emerald Isle of 150 years ago . . . this is also an important source for an Irish-American who would like to better understand his or her roots, like me. Perhaps those of us who have ties to the isle are more likely to appreciate the suffering that happened there. A relentless, brilliant study. Scally digs deep, far beneath the generalities of our assumptions about the Famine. This is not an easy book to read, and not for the faint-hearted. My hair stood on end, and I was deeply grateful for it. Robert James Scally's book gave me a very clear understanding of what transpired from about 1835 to 1850.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-13 00:00:00 Matthias Schillebeeckx Le Secret de la chambre de Rodinsky est écrit à quatre mains par Rachel Lichtenstein dont on découvre les obsessions et les quêtes parfois modianesques, et Iain Sinclair qui donne à ses digressions psychogéographiques des accents borgésiens. Dans une seule chambre de l'est de Londres, il est donc possible de trouver de quoi tirer près de 450 pages d'enquêtes et de digressions. C'est l'histoire d'un « homme qui est devenu une chambre » écrit Iain Sinclair.