In twentieth-century Chile, access to nutritious and affordable food was a central social and labor demand. In a country that suffered from endemic inflation and, by the early 1950s, was importing agricultural products, especially wheat, to feed its growing population, food remained a contentious political and economic issue. The increase in the price of food and other essential supplies sparked local and national protests, while medical doctors worried about malnutrition and high infant mortality rates. In Hungry for the Revolution, Joshua Frens-String looks at the long history of food policies and politics in twentieth-century Chile, showing the complex interplay between social demands and state efforts to increase food production, modernize agriculture, and improve the diet of all Chileans. In doing so, he demonstrates that food shaped the development of welfare, social, rural, and economic policies in Chile.
Hungry for the Revolution is part of long but sometimes dispersed historiography...
