1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782733003321

Autore

Hatton Helen Elizabeth

Titolo

The largest amount of good : Quaker relief in Ireland, 1654-1921 / / Helen E. Hatton

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Kingston [Ont.] : , : McGill-Queen's University Press, , 1993

ISBN

1-282-85617-0

9786612856174

0-7735-6369-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 367 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

289.6/415

Soggetti

Quakers - Ireland - Charities - History

Famines - Ireland - History

Food relief - Ireland - History

Ireland History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references: p. [329] -348 and index.

Nota di contenuto

From Conviction to Action -- Good to All and Harm to None: Early Years in Ireland -- A Condition Low and Degraded -- Rehearsals for Disaster -- A National Misfortune, a National Sin -- A Remarkable Manifestation of National Sympathy -- Feeding the Hungry and Clothing the Naked -- A Little Thing Helps a Poor Man -- Help the Men to Help Themselves -- Ever Widening Circles.

Sommario/riassunto

The Largest Amount of Good is the first full account of Quaker relief operations in Ireland and of the evolution of the Quakers' thinking on the purposes and limitations of philanthropy and the responsibility of the state in disaster. Helen Hatton describes how the Quakers rejected orthodox economic and philanthropic theory and, without seeking profit for themselves, provided grants and unguaranteed loans to develop and revitalize Irish agriculture, fisheries, and industry. They also used publicity and political pressure to push for reform of the land-holding system. Although the power of the landowners was too entrenched to be overcome entirely, the Quakers' contribution to Ireland, Hatton demonstrates, is unquestionable. The growth of the Quaker relief service, from mutual help in the seventeenth century to



an institution of international standing, has been accompanied by the gradual embodiment of their principles in the direction of the Society. Their work in the Great Irish Famine marked a turning point at which the procedures they had evolved inchoately over two centuries were formulated into a methodology that is accepted today as the basis for relief and Third World development.