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Overview
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: | 9780143123019 |
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Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 07/30/2013 |
Pages: | 672 |
Product dimensions: | 8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.20(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
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