Book ID: CBB138751996

On an Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief (2020)

unapi

Scott-Smith, Tom (Author)


Cornell University Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 288
Language: English

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. These 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.

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Reviewed By

Review Ralf Futselaar (October 2022) Review of "On an Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief". Technology and Culture (pp. 1239-1241). unapi

Review Ramah McKay (2022) Review of "On an Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 876-877). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB138751996/

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Authors & Contributors
Zurbrigg, Sheila
Mike Murphy
William J. Smyth
Joshua Frens-String
Karen Throsby
Manley, Rebecca
Concepts
Public health
Nutrition; dietetics
Food and foods
Hunger
Medicine and politics
Famines
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Places
United States
South Asia
East Asia
London (England)
Sweden
Spain
Institutions
United States. Food and Drug Administration
University of Minnesota
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