About the Author

Lizzie Collingham is the author of Imperial Bodies: The physical experience of the Raj and Curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors, hailed by William Dalrymple as 'scholarly, accessible and above all utterly original'. Having taught History at Warwick University she became a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. She is now an independent scholar and writer. She has lived in Australia, France and Germany and now lives near Cambridge with her husband and small daughter.

Reviews

Creates a whole new and original dimension to the disasters of war. Every page contains a fresh insight ... Powerfully written ... punctuated with brilliant micro-historical accounts, is bound to prove the most thorough and important study of the topic for many years to come
*John Cornwell*

A major achievement. The Taste of War presents a wholly novel approach to a conflict which still informs our understanding of the contemporary world. It will stir family memories of privation and endurance wherever it is read.
*Professor Chris Bayly, author of Forgotten Armies*

Food was so important and so universal an element to the experience of the Second World War that it is extraordinary no one has written its history before. Lizzie Collingham's pioneering book, ranging from the famine lands of Eastern Europe, China and India, via the development of German and Allied policies, to the new plenty of America, is a magnificent example of the new global history-writing at its very best.
*Nicholas Stargardt*

Every now and again a book comes along that transforms our understanding of a subject that had previously seemed so well worn and familiar. That is the measure of Lizzie Collingham's achievement in this outstanding global account of the role played by food (and its absence) during the Second World War. It will now be impossible to think of the war in the old way. She has added a whole new layer of understanding not only about the way the war was fought but about the gruelling consequences for tens of millions of non-combatants world-wide when the food chain collapsed. Now, once again, Collingham reminds us, the global food economy is facing a crisis.
*Literary Review*

This fascinating calorie-centric history of the greatest conflict in world history is scholarly and well-written but, above all, wholly convincing. After this book, no historian will be able to write a comprehensive history of the second world war without putting the multifarious issues of food production and consumption centre stage.
*Financial Times*

Lizzie Collingham's book possesses the notable virtue of originality...[She] has gathered many strands to pursue an important theme across a global canvas. She reminds us of the timeless truth that all human and political behaviour is relative.
*The Sunday Times*

Powerful and important...Like all the best ideas, Collingham's means that a lot of events fall satisfyingly into place.
*The Independent*

Neither a work of revisionism nor an example of a too-focused academic specialty, this is that rarest of works: one that is scholarly, entertaining, and actually provides new insight into World War II. U.K. historian Collingham (Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj) shows how the food policies of Germany, Japan, the British Empire, and the United States were developed from experiences in World War I or during industrialization and how those policies impacted the way these nations fought World War II. From autarky (i.e., self-sufficiency) to over-reliance on global food markets, the combatant countries all had different policies for feeding their populations, both those in the armed forces and those on the home front. The impact of these policies would lead directly and indirectly to the deaths of 20 million people, a number equal to the combat deaths in this war. VERDICT In this era, in which little arable land is likely to open up, Collingham's work is relevant for the future as well for historical study. Highly recommended for all who study World War II history, as well as those specializing in the study of food production and food security. [See Prepub Alert, 9/29/11.]-Brian K. DeLuca, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.