Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food

by Lizzie Collingham

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of 2012

Food, and in particular the lack of it, was central to the experience of World War II. In this richly detailed and engaging history, Lizzie Collingham establishes how control of food and its production is crucial to total war. How were the imperial ambitions of Germany and Japan - ambitions which sowed the seeds of war - informed by a desire for self-sufficiency in food production? How was the outcome of the war affected by the decisions that the Allies and the Axis took over how to feed their troops? And how did the distinctive ideologies of the different combatant countries determine their attitudes towards those they had to feed?

Tracing the interaction between food and strategy, on both the military and home fronts, this gripping, original account demonstrates how the issue of access to food was a driving force within Nazi policy and contributed to the decision to murder hundreds of thousands of 'useless eaters' in Europe. Focusing on both the winners and losers in the battle for food, The Taste of War brings to light the striking fact that war-related hunger and famine was not only caused by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, but was also the result of Allied mismanagement and neglect, particularly in India, Africa and China.

American dominance both during and after the war was not only a result of the United States' immense industrial production but also of its abundance of food. This book traces the establishment of a global pattern of food production and distribution and shows how the war subsequently promoted the pervasive influence of American food habits and tastes in the post-war world. A work of great scope, The Taste of War connects the broad sweep of history to its intimate impact upon the lives of individuals. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101561317
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/29/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	656
Sales rank:	231,420
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lizzie Collingham is the author of Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj and Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. Having taught history at Warwick University she became a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. She is now an independent scholar and writer. She has lived in Australia, France, and Germany and now lives near Cambridge with her husband and small daughter.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Note on Sources xv

Maps xvii

1 Introduction - War and Food 1

Part I Food - An Engine of War

2 Germany's Quest for Empire 18

From wheat to meat 18

Defeat, hunger and the legacy of the First World War 23

Autarky and Lebensraum 26

Herbert Backe and the Hunger Plan 32

Genocide in the east 39

3 Japan's Quest for Empire 49

A radical answer to rural crisis 51

One million households in Manchuria 58

From Nanjing to Pearl Harbor 62

Part II The Battle for Food

4 American Boom 75

5 Feeding Britain 89

From meat to bread and potatoes 90

American dried egg and Argentinian corned beef 96

6 The Battle of the Atlantic 102

The worst winter of the war 103

The American lifeline 107

Frozen meat versus men and arms 110

Victory in the Atlantic 116

7 Mobilizing the British Empire 120

The Middle East Supply Centre 126

Profiteering in East Africa 132

West Africa and the dollar deficit 138

The Bengal famine 141

8 Feeding Germany 155

The battle for production 156

The occupation of western Europe 164

Greek famine and Belgian resilience 165

Allies and Aryans 172

9 Germany Exports Hunger to the East 180

Living off the land 184

Implementing the Hunger Plan 190

The food crisis of 1941-42 199

The Holocaust in Poland 204

Food confiscation in the Ukraine 213

10 Soviet Collapse 219

11 Japan's Journey towards Starvation 228

Rice and sweet potatoes 229

Chaos and hunger in the empire 234

12 China Divided 248

Nationalist collapse 249

Communist survival 257

Part III The Politics of Food

13 Japan - Starving for the Emperor 273

Healthy eating as a patriotic virtue 275

Churchill's rations 282

The American blockade 286

Guadalcanal 291

New Guinea 293

Burma 300

Hunger on the home islands 303

Surrender 308

14 The Soviet Union - Fighting on Empty 317

Feeding the Red Army 318

Feeding the cities 325

The American lifeline 339

Perseverance despite hunger 343

15 Germany and Britain - Two Approaches to Entitlement 347

1930s Britain - a nutritional divide 349

1930s Germany - the campaign for nutritional freedom 353

The politics of rationing 358

Feeding the British working classes 363

Feeding the German war machine 367

The black market 374

The German cities - hungry but not starving 378

16 The British Empire - War as Welfare 384

Dr Carrot - guarding the British nation's health 386

Closing the nutritional gap 395

Health and morale - the Army Catering Corps 399

Fighting on bully beef and biscuits 403

Porridge, peas and vitamins 405

Nutritional reconditioning - the Indian army 411

17 The United States - Out of Depression and into Abundance 415

The 'good war' 416

Future hopes 429

Troop welfare 434

Australia - food processing for victory 443

Feeding Pacific islanders 452

Part IV The Aftermath

18 A Hungry World 467

19 A World of Plenty 476

American plenty versus European relief 477

A vision for the future 481

The shape of the post-war food world 484

The rise of the new consumer 490

A Selective Chronology of the Second World War 503

Notes 514

Bibliography 581

Index 621

Editorial Reviews

"Ambitious, compelling, fascinating."
— THE GUARDIAN (UK)

"Every now and again a book comes along that tranforms our understanding of a subject that had previously seemed so well-worn and familiar. That is the measure of LIzzie Collingham's achievement in this outstanding global account of the role played by food (and its absense) during the Second World War. It will now be impossible to think of the war in the old way."
— Richard Overy, LITERARY REVIEW

"Fascinating... After this book, no historian will be able to write a comprehensive history of the Second World War without putting the multifarious issues of food production and consumption centre stage." 
— Andrew Roberts, FINANCIAL TIMES

"Lizzie Collingham's book possesses the notable virtue of originality... [She] has gathered many strands to pursue an important theme across a global canvas. She reminds us of the timeless truth that all human and political behaviour is relative."
— Max Hastings, THE SUNDAY TIMES

“An important, original contribution”
— Booklist

“A definitive work of World War II scholarship.”
— Kirkus

From the Publisher

Ambitious, compelling, fascinating

THE GUARDIAN (UK)

Powerful and important

Diane Purkiss

Lizzie Collingham's book possesses the notable virtue of originality...[She] has gathered many strands to pursue an important theme across a global canvas. She reminds us of the timeless truth that all human and political behaviour is relative.

Max Hastings

Fascinating…After this book, no historian will be able to write a comprehensive history of the Second World War without putting the multifarious issues of food production and consumption centre stage.

Andrew Roberts

Every now and again a book comes along that transforms our understanding of a subject that had previously seemed so well worn and familiar.  That is the measure of Lizzie Collingham's achievement in this outstanding global account of the role played by food (and its absence) during the Second World War.  It will now be impossible to think of the war in the old way.

Richard Overy

Examining in detail the role played by food in the greatest of all political conflicts, the Second World War, was a brilliant idea on Collingham's part. The Taste of War is breathtaking in its breadth and scope, global in coverage and yet anchored in detailed research.

The Nation

In Ms. Collingham's sweeping international history embracing high politics and local realities, we see the critical importance of food—and its pursuit—for the major combatant nations. The interconnectivity of the global food trade; the dependence of most of the combatants on food imports; the draining of resources necessary for food production, transportation and distribution; and the inescapable dependence of humanity on a minimum daily caloric intake—all made "the battle for food" not just an economic but a strategic and social one as well. On every level and at every stage, from the conflict's origins and execution to the policies toward civilians and prisoners of war, World War II was influenced by the struggle to control agricultural resources.

The Wall Street Journal

The role of food during World War II? It sounds specialized, but consider: 20 million people died during the war from starvation or malnutrition alone, equal to the number of military deaths. The Nazis set about eliminating "useless eaters." British rationing worked at home, but wholly preventable famine killed millions in India. And though America's food production remained strong, it was at this time that our "fast-food nation" got its start. Intriguing for informed readers.

Library Journal