The book concludes with insights on a study of a millennium of Russian famines and on the adjustment of food behaviour during famine. The book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on famine. Its value lies, however, in helping to conceptualize and evaluate famine. Edited by Lucile F. Newman. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, Mass., USA, 1990.
Hunger is one of a set of seemingly intractable global issues.
After two initial chapters to examine what is known or can be inferred about prehistoric patterns of hunger, this comprehensive book attempts to document the prevalence, causes, and consequences of hunger throughout recorded history. It examines hunger in the ancient Mediterranean, and Chinese and Mayan societies as well as in recent centuries and decades. In reviewing historical patterns, it asks and offers answers to the question of why hunger occurred throughout history and why it persists today in a world of plenty. The book suggests that the elimination of hunger may be attainable for the first time in human history because it is now possible to contemplate the end of food scarcity, famine, and mass starvation. It makes it clear, however, that changes that extend food entitlements to the marginal populations in which the bulk of the world's hunger occurs will be required.