Call for articles:
Special issue of "Global Food History" on food commodities in wartime
We are seeking proposals for articles on food commodities and wartime to be published in a special issue of the new, peer-reviewed journal "Global Food History". The topic is geographically and chronologically open, though we are especially eager to see papers on non-U.S. topics. Papers should focus explicitly on war preparedness, wartime, or postwar reconstruction in any modern war and should foreground food. Possible topics include:
- The relationship between governments and businesses during wartime
- The impact of war-related policies on global food supplies in the after-war years
- The role played by wartime mobilization and demobilization in shaping global post-war aid and trade relations
- Strategic uses of food price controls
- The politics of inflation and protests over food prices
- The diplomacy of food supply
- Soldiers’ rations and military supply practices
- Food aid and emergency relief for non-combatants and/or refugees
Papers showing lasting consequences for what people globally eat are especially welcome.
Contributors to the issue thus far focus mainly on U. S. governmental control over agricultural commodities (wheat, sugar, and soy) during and in the years immediately after the First and Second World Wars. During both conflicts the United States took a leading role in coordinating food supplies for civilians and combatants around the globe. Wartime exigencies authorized policies that would not have been acceptable outside of such an emergency. Ensuring a sufficient flow of nourishing food during wartime involved policymakers in negotiations over consumption, agriculture, trade, and diplomacy.
Through additional papers we hope to expand the geographic reach of the special issue. Transnational and international research is especially welcome, as are papers focusing on Asia and/or Africa. Please send proposals of approx. 300 words to April Merleaux <amerleau@fiu.edu> and Ines Prodoehl <prodoehl@ghi-dc.org> no later than March 15, 2015. Final papers should be ready for peer-review by July 31, 2015 at the latest.