Food, and in particular the lack of it, was central to the experience of World War II. In this richly detailed history, Lizzie Collingham establishes how control of food and its production is crucial to total war. Tracing the interaction between food and strategy, on both the military and home fronts, Collingham demonstrates how access to food was a driving force within Nazi policy and contributed to the decision to murder hundreds of thousands of "useless eaters," and brings to light the fact that famine was not only caused by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, but was also the result of Allied mismanagement and neglect, particularly in India, Africa and China. She also shows how the war subsequently promoted the pervasive influence of American food habits and tastes in the post-war world.--From publisher description.

1. War and food -- pt. I. Food, an engine of war. 2. Germany's quest for empire : From wheat to meat ; Defeat, hunger and the legacy of the First World War ; Autarky and Lebensraum ; Herbert Backe and the Hunger Plan ; Genocide in the East -- 3. Japan's quest for empire : A radical answer to rural crisis ; One million households in Manchuria ; From Nanjing to Pearl Harbor -- pt. II. The battle for food. 4. American boom -- 5. Feeding Britain : From meat to bread and potatoes ; American dried egg and Argentinian corned beef -- 6. The battle of the Atlantic : The worst winter of the war ; The American lifeline ; Frozen meat versus men and arms ; Victory in the Atlantic -- 7. Mobilizing the British Empire : The Middle East Supply Centre ; Profiteering in East Africa ; West Africa and the dollar deficit ; The Bengal famine -- 8. Feeding Germany : The battle for production ; The occupation of western Europe ; Greek famine and Belgian resilience ; Allies and Aryans -- 9. Germany exports hunger to the East : Living off the land ; Implementing the Hunger Plan ; The food crisis of 1941-42 ; The holocaust in Poland ; Food confiscation in the Ukraine -- 10. Soviet collapse -- 11. Japan's journey towards starvation : Rice and sweet potatoes ; Chaos and hunger in the empire -- 12. China divided : Nationalist collapse ; Communist survival -- pt. III. The politics of food. 13. Japan: starving for the Emperor : Healthy eating as a patriotic virtue ; Churchill's rations ; The American blockade ; Guadalcanal ; New Guinea ; Burma ; Hunger on the home islands ; Surrender -- 14. The Soviet Union, fighting on empty : Feeding the Red Army ; Feeding the cities ; The American lifeline ; Perseverance despite hunger -- 15. Germany and Britain, two approaches to entitlement : 1930s Britain, a nutritional divide ; 1930s Germany, the campaign for nutritional freedom ; The politics of rationing ; Feeding the British working classes ; Feeding the German war machine ; The black market ; The German cities, hungry but not starving -- 16. The British Empire, war as welfare : Dr. Carrot, guarding the British nation's health ; Closing the nutritional gap ; Health and morale, the Army Catering Corps ; Fighting on bully beef and biscuits ; Porridge, peas and vitamins ; Nutritional reconditioning, the Indian Army -- 17. The United States, out of depression and into abundance : The 'good war' ; Future hopes ; Troop welfare ; Australia, food processing for victory ; Feeding Pacific Islanders -- pt. IV. The aftermath : 18. A hungry world -- 19. A world of plenty : American plenty versus European relief ; A vision for the future ; The shape of the post-war food world ; The rise of the new consumer -- A selective chronology of the Second World War.