070180 SE Seminar (2017W)

When connecting food and war, the first idea would be to study shortage and starvation. However, this seminar chooses another focus: Abundance. American troops in the first half of the 20th century were definitely better fed than any other military forces ever. The major causes were domestic research on dietary improvements and the export capacities of the country. America supported the Allies with food in quantity and quality. Together with the G.I.s victories some special foods and drinks spread the globe. Coca Cola is only one of many products characterizing the wealth of American troops. Also, doughnuts, wonder bread, and chewing gum fit into the picture.

What would be named the Americanization of local diets roots in the specific focus on nutritional improvements invented and developed by the U.S.-Army’s laboratories? By looking into the impact of their technologies on the worldwide food industry, global history is understood as a process of mobility of humans, objects, and knowledge. Details matter. Therefore, this seminar exclusively deals with the American food history from the United States’ entry into the Great World War (=WW I), followed by the interwar years, and from WW II to the Korean War. In this period a true reformulation of dietary regimes took place in both, armies and among civilians in America.

In comparison with other regions, the American population was almost never affected by enduring, severe starvation. Ordinary Europeans first got an idea of America’s abundance, when three million American troops in England were preparing for the invasion of Europe. During the American Occupation of Britain (1942-1945) a common saying was that the G.I.s were “oversexed, overfed, over here.”

During the post-WW II occupation in Europe, the presence of millions of American troops deployed on the continent raised curiosity and interest in their lifestyle. While, the generosity with which the American soldiers distributed chewing gums and candies among civilians were welcomed other new foods, which massively spread Europe latest after the Berlin Airlift, were regarded with mistrust. Eventually, they were accepted. Some of them went global. Therefore, the perspective of this seminar also includes the war-theaters in Japan and later in Korea. This rounds up with asking what the Americanization of foodways was about.

Quantitative research about type, amount, and quality of U.S. food relief programs and sales to the Allies can be conducted. Further, the globalization of specific foods, such as instant coffee, Spam corned beef, peanut butter, wonder bread, energy bars, etc. can be traced back to the American Army’s innovative food studies. Another question could be, how war logistics defined dietary changes in the United States themselves. Also, the unprecedented operation of the Quartermaster Corps (=QMC), the entity of the U.S.-military forces which organized also the food of the troops, could be a research topic.