On an Empty Stomach

Tom Scott-Smith

Description

On an Empty Stomach examines the practical techniques humanitarians have used to manage and measure starvation, from Victorian "scientific" soup kitchens to space-age, high-protein foods. Tracing the evolution of these techniques since the start of the nineteenth century, Tom Scott-Smith argues that humanitarianism is not a simple story of progress and improvement, but rather is profoundly shaped by sociopolitical conditions. Aid is often presented as an apolitical and technical project, but the way humanitarians conceive and tackle human needs has always been deeply influenced by culture, politics, and society. Txhese influences extend down to the most detailed mechanisms for measuring malnutrition and providing sustenance.As Scott-Smith shows, over the past century, the humanitarian approach to hunger has redefined food as nutrients and hunger as a medical condition. Aid has become more individualized, medicalized, and rationalized, shaped by modernism in bureaucracy, commerce, and food technology. On an Empty Stomach focuses on the gains and losses that result, examining the complex compromises that arise between efficiency of distribution and quality of care. Scott-Smith concludes that humanitarian groups have developed an approach to the empty stomach that is dependent on compact, commercially produced devices and is often paternalistic and culturally insensitive.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Human rights
• Anthropology
• Central

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501748677
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

ON AN EMPTY STOMACH

ONANEMPTY STOMACH Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Tom ScottSmith

ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress. cornell.edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: ScottSmith, Tom, 1980– author. Title: On an empty stomach : two hundred years of hunger relief / Tom  ScottSmith. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2020. | Includes  bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019032685 (print) | LCCN 2019032686 (ebook) |  ISBN 9781501748653 (cloth) | ISBN 9781501748677 (pdf) |  ISBN 9781501748660 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Food relief—History. | Humanitarian assistance—History. |  Starvation—History. | Emergency mass feeding—History. |  Nutrition—Research—History. Classification: LCC HV696.F6 S39 2020 (print) | LCC HV696.F6 (ebook) |  DDC 363.8/83—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032685 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032686

For Sue and Ali

Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments

Introduction: Humanitarian Approaches to Hunger 1.  From the Classical Soup Kitchen to the Irish Famine 2.  Justus Liebig and the Rise of Nutritional Science 3.  Governing the Diet in Victorian Institutions 4.  Colonialism and Communal Strength 5.  Social Nutrition at the League of Nations 6.  Military Feeding during World War II 7.  The Medicalization of Hunger and the Postwar Period 8. High Modernism and the Development Decade 9.  Low Modernism after Biafra 10.  SmallScale Devices and the Low Modernist Legacy Conclusion: On an Empty Stomach

Notes Bibliography Index

ix xi xvii

1 17 32 45 61 75 90 106 121 137 155 170

185 221 257

Illustrations

1.  Soyer’s Irish soup kitchen 2.  Instructions for measuring the midupper arm circumference 3.  Ground plan of the soup house in Orchard Street, Westminster 4.  Advertisement for Liebig’s Extract of Meat 5.  Inside a calorimeter 6.  Diet and physique of Indian races 7.  This age of plenty. Cartoon by Sidney Strube 8.  Surplus stocks of US Army K rations 9.  The illusion of the German calories. Cartoon by Mirko Szewczuk 10.  The Minnesota Starvation Experiment 11.  International Conference on SingleCell Protein 12.  Cartoon by Mark Boxer 13.  Early anthropometric measuring tapes

ix

3

7

23 40 50 66 81 93

98 108 123 141 157