Bread for the world

by Arthur R. Simon

Examines social, economic, and political aspects of international hunger and of its possible alleviation and explains how the ordinary person can help to shape public policy conducive to greater, more effective efforts toward alleviation

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Ronald Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is the founder of the organization Bread for the World and this book was written as a sort of resource guide and a source of income for that group. While framed as a "Christian citizens' movement", the style of Christianity referred to in this book should not be confused with the hate-based Christian political activism of recent years. The facts presented are somewhat outdated — people were still watching black-and-white televisions, half of which were still made in the United States — but the commentary on US foreign policy is still valuable, though back then the distorting American obsession was fighting Communism. This was a rather strange book to read after Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, as the Third World development Simon encourages in this book has resulted in some of the current problems described in Friedman's. I believe this book was required reading for an upper-level psych class I took at the University of Washington around 1979 on world poverty and hunger.

[Coralie Vail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informative. Bread for the World is a Christian organization that focuses on the political side of garnering support for hunger in the world. I read it because we are doing a letter writing to the local government and wanted more background information. This was written in 1974 so events like the end of Vietnam and the focus on Communism had impact on world hunger. The oil crisis at them time was a big one, there was a lot of information on international trading, environmentalism and many things we wouldn't necessarily consider effecting world hunger. There is an updated revision from 2009 that I am going to read next. It should be just as informative.

[Ellison · Rating 2 out of 5]

author bemoans the wealth of wealthy countries and declares the wealthy should give their wealth to poor countries, even if they have dictators who use food as a weapon? oh, and communist countries do not count?

then he says the united states spends too much on weapons? yeah, who cares about safety? and the free speech he has to write this book? oh, well, too much is bein' spent on missiles, can not eat those? mentions scripture but not 'the poor will always be with you?'

contributions are alright but american tax payers need to support the global poor?

they are still in business, so all is well.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great!! Nonfiction usually takes me a while but this was easy to read. Great justification for how hunger is solvable. It’s from the 1970s so the facts are outdated, but the justification/arguments/philosophy is timeless. Lots to think about, would recommend