Hunger: An Unnatural History takes a look at hunger from a variety of perspectives, from the biochemical to the sociopolitical. Less of a history than a sampling of several interpretive approaches, the book is in many ways exactly what you think it will be: a hodgepodge of facts and angles on its theme, brought together to give the reader a sample of the various dimensions of hunger, appetite, food, nutrition, and starvation. Shuttling between the literary and the scientific, Apt Russell's style is extremely readable and employs no technical or academic language, which makes the book accessible to a very wide audience.

Included in the chapters are discussions of the various uses of fasting among religious and non-religious persons. Dietary restrictions are often essential to the ascetic seeking spiritual liberation, but fasting can also take on a political edge when it takes the form of a hunger strike. In fact, we learn that it can have many other political and personal pay-offs, especially when it's linked to a religious cause. Citing two fasts by Jerry Falwell, which he underwent to raise money for his Liberty University, the author writes: "The new spiritual fasting can claim material rewards." "For some supporters, a fast gets you God's attention and then gets you what you want, a remission of cancer or a new job (49)."

Much of the treatment of the religious and political dimensions of hunger tend toward issues of global malnutrition and starvation, as one might expect. But the text doesn't move in this direction uncritically or at the expense of the other issues. Troubling questions of world hunger, Apt Russell examines the anthropology of hunger and the problem of the construction of hunger as a phenomenon, how its thresholds and limits are determined, as well as its objective effects.

Some of the more intriguing bits of the book highlight the intersection of the physiological, psychological, and cultural dimensions of hunger, although the author does end up privileging the objective, bodily aspect. She makes it clear that hunger poses a real problem that needs to be addressed. "The social responses to widespread hunger are varied, dependent to some degree on history and culture, on politics, on economics, and on personal choice. Yet these responses are still grounded in the body (156)." Among other natural-cultural hybrids, she discusses how mothers provide the nourishment upon which civilizations grow; the link between caloric intake and lifespan, and the social movements attached to this connection; the social and biological aspects of anorexia nervosa; how our appetites and cravings are shaped by our experiences at home and abroad; and the fascinating world of food aversions, which often result from traumatic encounters. Is cannibalism a biological or a cultural aversion?

At times, Apt Russell leaves the reader anxious to examine a particular issue in greater detail or fails to provide more evidence for a contentious claim. She could have spent hundreds of pages on the socioeconomic disparities between forced starvation and voluntary diet restriction, or she might have went deeper into the fertile fact that males are more likely to subject themselves to a fast than are females. Her mosaic of themes doesn't really cohere into a unified narrative, and occasionally seems little more than anecdotal. However, these are not necessarily defects of the book. Hunger is meant to introduce readers to a complex theme and suggest several avenues of study, not to exhaust every possible perspective.

© 2007 Tom Sparrow

Tom Sparrow is a doctoral student in the philosophy department and fellow at the Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research at Duquesne University.

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