Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

The 1840s were known, even at the time, as the ‘Hungry Forties’. Riots, mostly related to food shortages, broke out in Britain in 1811–1813, 1815–1817, 1819, 1826, between 1829 and 1835, in 1838–1842, 1843–1844 and 1846–1848.