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Needless Hunger: Voices from a Bangladesh Village
093502803x refers "Needless hunger : voices from a Bangladesh village" Betsy Hartmann, James K. Boyce., 1993, Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland, CA
- GenresAnthropologyNonfiction
74 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
23 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Hartmann
9 books2 followersAuthor, educator, and activist Betsy Hartmann addresses critical national and global challenges in both her fiction and nonfiction writing. Her recently released novel, Last Place Called Home, is a political thriller about the opioid crisis and war on drugs in a small Massachusetts mill town. It is a finalist in the 2024 International Book Awards mystery/suspense category and a finalist in the 2024 American Fiction Awards political thriller category. Readers' Favorite calls it a "beautiful literary creation with a setting that feels like a a character in its own right."
Betsy is also the author of the feminist classic Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control and of The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War and Our Call to Greatness. She is the co-author of A Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village. Eerily prescient, her previous political thrillers, The Truth about Fire and Deadly Election, explore the threat the Far Right poses to American democracy.
Betsy did her undergraduate degree at Yale University and her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is professor emerita of Development Studies at Hampshire College, where she taught for twenty-eight years. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Betsy is also the author of the feminist classic Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control and of The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War and Our Call to Greatness. She is the co-author of A Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village. Eerily prescient, her previous political thrillers, The Truth about Fire and Deadly Election, explore the threat the Far Right poses to American democracy.
Betsy did her undergraduate degree at Yale University and her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is professor emerita of Development Studies at Hampshire College, where she taught for twenty-eight years. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 31, 2017
Yes, Bangladesh is subject to natural disasters and natural forces, but this book delineates how human structures and actions have contributed to the hardship of millions.
I wish I had encountered this book earlier, to accompany my readings of Bangladeshi newspapers which can't or don't provide what is common/unspoken understanding there. It is a lucid look at what is behind the realities of Bangladesh, and thus the impressions of Bangladesh--even though this book is a distillation of the authors' fieldwork and life undertaken for several months in a Bangladeshi village in the late 1970s it is still relevant for understanding the realities and discourse today. I did find myself wishing that there was a contemporary match for this book, though--that someone would perform this act of perspective in the current times, not to replace this work but to supplement it.
I wish I had encountered this book earlier, to accompany my readings of Bangladeshi newspapers which can't or don't provide what is common/unspoken understanding there. It is a lucid look at what is behind the realities of Bangladesh, and thus the impressions of Bangladesh--even though this book is a distillation of the authors' fieldwork and life undertaken for several months in a Bangladeshi village in the late 1970s it is still relevant for understanding the realities and discourse today. I did find myself wishing that there was a contemporary match for this book, though--that someone would perform this act of perspective in the current times, not to replace this work but to supplement it.
February 20, 2021
This is a very basic book. It is short and largely to the point.
Where often an older book continues to be useful this book is less useful as it speaks specifically to the environment at the time in Bangladesh and development, rather than a more general theoretical approach. It also has been superseded by their excellent and more detailed later book Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village.
Their general argument is that hunger is not an issue with supply, but an issue with access and that aid programmes do little to alleviate this. They point to how politics often supersedes allegedly well thought out development interventions and those in a locale who can martial political power can often use it to gain economically from development.
At times the book is ahead of it's time, advocating for interventions within the community, and others it is very of it, a discussion of the merits of collectivisation.
Where often an older book continues to be useful this book is less useful as it speaks specifically to the environment at the time in Bangladesh and development, rather than a more general theoretical approach. It also has been superseded by their excellent and more detailed later book Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village.
Their general argument is that hunger is not an issue with supply, but an issue with access and that aid programmes do little to alleviate this. They point to how politics often supersedes allegedly well thought out development interventions and those in a locale who can martial political power can often use it to gain economically from development.
At times the book is ahead of it's time, advocating for interventions within the community, and others it is very of it, a discussion of the merits of collectivisation.
December 17, 2012
Even though it was written in the 70s, this book gives a great historical perspective into the way international aid has impacted Bangladesh.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews