Food, Scarcity and Power in Southeastern Europe During the Second World War / edited by Paolo Fonzi, Sabine Rutar, and Xavier Bougarel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bougarel, Xavier, editor.

Fonzi, Paolo, editor.

Rutar, Sabine, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Balkan Peninsula--History--20th century.

Balkan Peninsula.

Food supply.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2024.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

The experience of all occupied countries during the Second World War was characterised by severe material shortages. Food, most noticeably, became a scarcity in everyday life; and that food grew into a major stake for all political groups at this time. This book shines a much-needed spotlight on the political role of food in Southeastern Europe from 1939 to 1945. Controlling food was a key strategy adopted by all actors - be they occupiers, state institutions, resistance organizations, international humanitarian organizations or private interest groups - in substantiating their bid for power. As a predominantly agrarian area with a substantial peasant population, investigating this topic is particularly poignant for Southeastern Europe. From discussions of searching for and fighting for food to offering relief and instrumentalising of food politically, the chapters in this volume add nuance to discussions on the complex intertwined political and social dynamics of war and occupation. In so doing, this sophisticated study fills an important gap in our understanding of the Second World War, food policy, and the social history of Europe more broadly.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of figures

List of maps

List of contributors

List of abbreviations

Introduction Paolo Fonzi, Sabine Rutar and Xavier Bougarel

Part One Germany: Extracting food and labour

1 The western Banat as Germany's breadbasket and the role of the Banat Germans in agricultural extraction Mirna Zakić

2 Coal and copper for the German war effort: Food and labour in Yugoslav mining industries Sabine Rutar

Part Two Italy: Instrumentalizing food

3 Between chaos and economic weakness: Italian food policies in Albania (1939-43) Alberto Basciani

4 Imperial humanitarianism: Italy and the Greek famine during the Second World War (1941-43) Paolo Fonzi

Part Three Cities: Searching for food

5 The rationing system and self-sufficiency efforts in Ljubljana during the Second World War Mojca Šorn

6 Trying the impossible: The Zagreb Jewish Community and the provisioning of female camp inmates (1941-42) Marija Vulesica

Part Four Contested territories: Fighting for food

7 Food and food policies in central Dalmatia from April 1941 to the Italian capitulation in September 1943 Nikica Barić

8 'To live by the gun': Food insecurity, ethnic violence and political mobilization in occupied Greece (1941-44) Spyros Tsoutsoumpis

Part Five Liberated territories: Feeding the Partisans

9 Survival and equity: The moral economy of the liberated territories of Western Bosnia (1941-45) Xavier Bougarel

10 The National Liberation Movement and food policies in the liberated inland territories of southern Albania (1942-44) Markenc Lorenci

Conclusion: The power of food in wartime Paolo Fonzi, Sabine Rutar and Xavier Bougarel

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781350333949

1350333948

9781350333932

135033393X

9781350333925

1350333921

OCLC:

1451805270