Table of Contents:
  • 1. War and food
  • pt. I. Food, an engine of war. 2. Germany's quest for empire : From wheat to meat ; Defeat, hunger and the legacy of the First World War ; Autarky and Lebensraum ; Herbert Backe and the hunger plan ; Genocide in the East
  • 3. Japan's quest for empire : A radical answer to rural crisis ; One million households in Manchuria ; From Nanjing to Pearl Harbor
  • pt. II. The battle for food. 4. American boom
  • 5. Feeding Britain : From meat to bread and potatoes ; American dried egg and Argentinian corned beef
  • 6. The battle of the Atlantic : The worst winter of the war ; The American lifeline ; Frozen meat versus men and arms ; Victory in the Atlantic
  • 7. Mobilizing the British Empire : The Middle East supply centre ; Profiteering in East Africa ; West Africa and the dollar deficit ; The Bengal famine
  • 8. Feeding Germany : The battle for production ; The occupation of western Europe ; Greek famine and Belgian resilience ; Allies and Aryans
  • 9. Germany exports hunger to the East : Living off the land ; Implementing the hunger plan ; The food crisis of 1941-42 ; The holocaust in Poland ; Food confiscation in the Ukraine
  • 10. Soviet collapse
  • 11. Japan's journey towards starvation : Rice and sweet potatoes ; Chaos and hunger in the empire
  • 12. China divided : Nationalist collapse ; Communist survival
  • pt. III. The politics of food. 13. Japan: starving for the Emperor : Healthy eating as a patriotic virtue ; Churchill's rations ; The American blockade ; Guadalcanal ; New Guinea ; Burma ; Hunger on the home islands ; Surrender
  • 14. The Soviet Union: fighting on empty : Feeding the Red Army ; Feeding the cities ; The American lifeline ; Perseverance despite hunger
  • 15. Germany and Britain: Two approaches to entitlement : 1930s Britain: a nutritional divide ; 1930s Germany: the campaign for nutritional freedom ; The politics of rationing ; Feeding the British working classes ; Feeding the German war machine ; The black market ; The German cities: hungry but not starving
  • 16. The British Empire: war as welfare : Dr. Carrot: guarding the British nation's health ; Closing the nutritional gap ; Health and morale: the Army Catering Corps ; Fighting on bully beef and biscuits ; Porridge, peas and vitamins ; Nutritional reconditioning: the Indian Army
  • 17. The United States: out of depression and into abundance : The 'good war' ; Future hopes ; Troop welfare ; Australia: food processing for victory ; Feeding Pacific Islanders
  • pt. IV. The aftermath : 18. A hungry world
  • 19. A world of plenty : American plenty versus European relief ; A vision for the future ; The shape of the post-war food world ; The rise of the new consumer
  • A selective chronology of the Second World War.