The Politics of Famine in European History and Memory

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Taylor & Francis 2025
• Series: Routledge Studies in Modern European History
• Subjects: Colonialism and imperialism; European history; Far-left political ideologies and movements; Far-right political ideologies and movements; food availability; History; History and Archaeology; History: specific events and topics; Holodomor; humanitarianism; hunger; Interdisciplinary studies; Philosophy; Philosophy and Religion; Political ideologies and movements; Politics and government; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Regional / International studies; Social and political philosophy; Society and Social Sciences; starvation; Topics in philosophy
• ISBN: 9781040369555; 9781003465805; 1040369561; 9781040369562; 9781032737577; 1003465803; 1040369553; 1032737573
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003465805

This is the first book to bring together groundbreaking scholarship focusing on the various ways in which famines result from political decision-making, and how the threat, occurrence, relief, or memory of famine is instrumentalized as a political and military tool. Contributions to this volume reveal the complexities, variations, and motivations behind the instrumentalization of famine by political actors and regimes, and how the politics of perpetrating hunger and the politics of relieving it have often been intertwined. They also address how famine legacies have been subsequently politicized in public debates, educational practices, and popular media; and how these socially and politically constructed memories and myths, in turn, have shaped broader narratives about hunger and humanitarianism both in history and today. The Politics of Famine in European History and Memory provides a crucial resource for scholars and students from all disciplines interested in the study of famines, as well as those interested in the history of war and troubled pasts more generally.