Since my move to Chico in the summer of 2018, I’ve been enjoying Fin Dwyer’s excellent Irish History podcast, mostly while I amble home from a long day of teaching. A few months ago he released an episode dealing with whether or not the Great Hunger – the famine that lasted from 1845 to 1849 – can be fairly called a genocide. Aside from the questions raised by applying the term to this particular historical event, the discussion made me think about the powerful role even a single word can play in debate, and what that tells us about how Read more