THE POTATO:
For evolving historical views of the potato, see Modern History Sourcebook, "Accounts of the 'Potato Revolution', 1695-1845", in http://fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1695potato.html

IRISH PERCEPTIONS OF THE FAMINE
Use the personal diaries of Robert Whyte and Gerald Keegan, and the contemporary press accounts from Ireland in http://www.people.Virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/Famine.html See also the tragic record of the famine kept by Cork Examiner at http://vassun.vassar.edu/~sttaylor/FAMINE/Examiner/

ENGLISH PERCEPTIONS OF THE FAMINE
Use the wealth of the contemporary articles from The Times, the Punch and the Illustrated London News collected in http://www.people.Virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/Famine.html andhttp://vassun.vassar.edu/~sttaylor/FAMINE/Punch/Punch.html

IRISH-AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE FAMINE
See the contemporary interpretation of the causes of the famine by the New York Bishop John Hughes and the Irish-American novelist Mary Anne Sadlier in http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/American.html and 
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Sadlier.html
 

WAS ENGLISH RACISM A FACTOR?
Use the collection of English images of the famine (from the Punch and the Illustrated London News) inhttp://www.people.Virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/Famine.html and http://vassun.vassar.edu/~staylor/FAMINE/Punch/Punch.html . For background, use Prof. Ed Lengel, "A 'Perverse and Ill-Fated People': English Perceptions of the Irish, 1845-1851" at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH38/Lengel.html