Looks at the ways that disparate groups used Irish famine relief in the 1840s to advance their own political agendas
Famine brought ruin to the Irish countryside in the nineteenth century. In response, people around the world and from myriad social, ethnic, and religious backgrounds became involved in Irish famine relief. They included enslaved Black people in Virginia, poor tenant farmers in rural New York, and members of the Cherokee and Choctaw nations, as well as plantation owners in the US south, abolitionists in Pennsylvania, and, politicians in England and Ireland. Most of these people had no personal connection to Ireland. For many, the famine was their first time participating in distant philanthropy.
Aiding Ireland investigates the Irish famine as a foundational moment for normalizing international giving. Anelise Hanson Shrout argues that these diverse men and women found famine relief to be politically useful. Shrout takes readers from Ireland to Britain, across the Atlantic to the United States, and across the Mississippi to Indian Territory, uncovering what was to be gained for each group by participating in global famine relief. Aiding Ireland demonstrates that international philanthropy and aid are never simple, and are always intertwined with politics both at home and abroad.

"In Aiding Ireland, historian Anelise Hanson Shrout addresses [the motivations behind humanitarian aid] in relation to the transnational philanthropic response to the Great Famine. Her convincing study explores why people from so many places and backgrounds donated, and reveals their underlying agendas. Without minimising the generosity of donors, she complicates prevalent and often simplistic narratives about famine-era philanthropy … a well-argued and highly welcome monograph that offers a compelling account of the political and ideological dimensions of humanitarian aid during the Famine." - The Irish Times