History 39Z Fall
2007
Professor James
Vernon
Hunger. An Unnatural or Modern History?
Hunger
is as old as history itself. And yet, while it often appears to be a timeless
and unchanging biological condition, our perceptions of hunger and of the hungry
have changed over time and differed from place to place.
In
Britain at the beginning of the nineteenth century, hunger had been viewed as
an unavoidable natural phenomenon, or the fault of the hungry themselves. By
the middle of the twentieth century, a new understanding of hunger had taken
root as humanitarian groups, political activists, social reformers, and
nutritional scientists established that the hungry were innocent victims of
political and economic forces beyond their control. Hunger was now seen as a
systemic problem that required new forms of government and welfare if it was to
be defeated.
This
course traces this momentous shift as it first occurred in modern, imperial
Britain over the past two centuries. Although the focus is on Britain and its
empire, the course is centrally concerned with how and when the war on hunger
became globalized through international NGOs and organizations like the League
of Nations and the United Nations.
Class meets: Wednesday 10-12am, 2303 Dwinelle
Office hours: Wednesday 2-4pm, 2214 Dwinelle
Required texts
Sharman Apt
Russell, Hunger: An Unnatural History 0465071651
Mike Davis, Late
Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World 1859843824
Course
reader. All materials in reader
+ in course reader
Assessment
20% for attendance
and participation in class. You
must come to class prepared, having read all the materials and able to discuss
them. Some of the readings are difficult,
digest and understand what you can and then come to class with questions. More than two unscheduled, unexplained
and undocumented absences will result in the loss of this full part of the
grade.
30% three short
one page, a diary and two critical commentaries on primary sources, ie.
historical documents and archival materials.
50% two longer ten
page ÔresearchÕ papers, complete with footnotes and bibliography. You will be expected to consult with me
in identifying a topic that you are interested in that arises from the course
materials. The papers will combine
research on primary sources with a discussion of the secondary literature, ie.
how other scholars have interpreted these texts or approached the
question.
All writing
assignments must be doubled spaced and in 12 font. They are due in class.
Do not plagiarize, ie. use or paraphrase the work of others without
citing the source. Any piece of
plagiarized work submitted for assessment will be failed.
29
August. Introduction: Class Mechanics.
5
September. What is hunger? How do we think about it historically?
Russell, Hunger, 1-53.
First short
paper due. One page on what, in fifty years time, historians will make of David
BlaineÕs forty four day fast above the Thames. YouÕll find all you need to know
at David Blaine Above the Below but you are also welcome to do some
additional research in British and American newspapers. This is primarily a
writing diagnostic, I do not expect you to have expert knowledge, I just want
to see how you write and develop an argument. But I am also interested in seeing why hunger interests you,
what you think it is, and why we need a history of it.
12
September. Pre-modern hunger?
+Thompson, ÒThe
Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth CenturyÓ and ÒMoral
Economy ReviewedÓ in Customs in Common, 185-351.
Thompson is
probably the greatest and most influential historian of the C20th. These articles have been hugely
influential but they also provide a great model for how historians should
argue.
19
September. Malthus and the
neo-Malthusians
+Polanyi, The
Great Transformation,
116-36.
+Stedman Jones, An
End to Poverty? 64-109.
Malthus, An
Essay on the Principle of Population (1826
edn), esp. Preface, Book One, Chapters 1 & 2, Book Four.
Second short
paper due. Either: What is
MalthusÕ view of the poor and how they should treated. Or: Does he think
famines are a good thing or just inevitable?
26
September. Famine and the
political economy of British colonialism
Davis, Late
Victorian Holocausts, 1-59, 141-209, 279-340.
Trevelyan,
The Irish Crisis, pp.1-2, 183-200.
Mitchel,
Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps), Chapter XXIV, pp.210-200
3
October. The Humanitarian Discovery of Hunger
+Vernon, Hunger, 17-40.
Booth,
In Darkest England, Preface and chs.1-3 of Part One.
Booth-Tucker, In Darkest
India, Preface and chs.1-4 of Part One
10
October. No Class.
Your first
research paper is due next week so get writing!
17
October. Fasting Girls and Anorexia
Russell, Hunger, 37-72, 157-67
+Brumberg, Fasting
Girls, 62-103.
A Complete History of the
Welsh Fasting Girl (Sarah Jacob,) with Comments thereon, and Observations on
Death from Starvation
(London, 1871)
First longer
research paper due.
24
October. Hunger Strikes
Russell, Hunger, 73-94.
+Vernon, Hunger, 60-80.
+ÒThe Decree of
TortureÓ, Votes for Women,
17 October 1913.
Film: Gandhi (1982)
YouÕll be
expected to watch the film in your own time before class. It is available in
the LibraryÕs Media Resource Center 999.203.
31
October. Hunger Marches
+Vernon, Hunger, 54-60 & 236-256
Orwell, The
Road to Wigan Pier, ch.5
The NUWM and the 1934 Hunger March
ÒWith
the Jarrow MarchersÓ, The Guardian, 13 October 1936
Third short
paper due. Watch the short film Bread made by the London Kino Group in 1934 at the LibraryÕs
Media Resource Center (video # C9417).
How does this film portray the unemployed, the forms of relief available
to them, and the hunger march of that year?
7
November. Hunger and War
Hunger has long
been a weapon of war but in the modern era it has been deployed in increasingly
calculated and deliberate ways.
Britain was often in the forefront of these developments – its
imperial history is full of sieges and blockades, internment and concentration
camps, as well as concerted efforts to feed its own soldiers and civilians
– and these have in turn been criticized on ethical and political
grounds. Your task this week, in
discussion with me, is to make a short presentation to the class about hunger
as a weapon of war based upon one of these episodes. You will need to have used at least two sources, one of
which you can bring to class as a show and tell.
14
November. The Science of Hunger
Russell, Hunger, 95-136.
+Vernon, Hunger, 81-117.
21
November. The Discovery of World
Hunger
+Vernon, Hunger, 118-158.
+Black, A Cause
for Our Times, 1-41.
Film: World of
Plenty, 1942. This short
film will be shown in class.
28
November. Course Review
Second research
paper due.