Death by Discourse?

The most virulent and rancorous debate during the Great Irish Famine concerned the role of the state in economic affairs, with the "science" of political economy, the authoritative official discourse, decreeing a policy of laissez-faire. Long regarded as either ignorant or neglectful of its principles, the Irish, from the 1830s, were the focus of systematic economic evangelism.



During the Famine, officialdom and its powerful institutional allies defended the "laws" of political economy then ...