The potato harvest is discussed under a number of themes: harvest technology, labour supply, employment conditions (especially of school children, local women and Irish immigrant workers), and adoption of mechanical harvesting methods. These themes show the process as a complex one not only at the level of the field but at the level of policy-making by local authorities and government departments which had a great impact on the work. Themes are discussed through a wide range of sources of evidence, some of which have hitherto been little used, such as oral testimony, printed accounts of the work, local authority records and records of government departments.
Winner in 1996 of the Michaelis-Jena Ratcliff Prize for this work, Heather Holmes is currently Research Fellow in the Department of Print Media, Publishing & Communication, at Napier University, Edinburgh.
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