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Famine in European History
This is the first systematic study of famine in all parts of Europe from the Middle Ages until the present. In case studies ranging from Scandinavia and Italy to Ireland and Russia, leading scholars compare the characteristics, consequences and causes of famine. The famines they describe differ greatly in size, duration and context; in many cases the damage wrought by poor harvests was confounded by war. The roles of human action, malfunctioning markets and poor relief are a recurring theme. The chapters also take full account of demographic, institutional, economic, social and cultural aspects, providing a wealth of new information which is organized and analyzed within a comparative framework. Famine in European History represents a significant new contribution to demographic history, and will be of interest to all those who want to discover more about famines - truly horrific events which, for centuries, have been a recurring curse for the Europeans.
338 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2017
About the author
Guido Alfani
10 books18 followersGuido Alfani is Professor of Economic History at Bocconi University, Milan (Italy). He is also an Affiliated Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality (New York), a Research Associate at the CAGE Research Centre (Warwick) and a Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR, London).
An economic and social historian and a historical demographer, he published extensively on Italy and Europe (and beyond), specialising in economic inequality and social mobility, in the history of epidemics and famines, in social alliance systems and social networks.
His most recent book, As Gods among Men. A History of the Rich in the West (Princeton University Press, 2023) is an ambitious attempt at providing a general history of the rich and the super-rich, and of how they obtained their wealth, from Antiquity until today.
His previous book, The Lion’s Share. Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2019), with Matteo Di Tullio, explores how preindustrial fiscal systems favoured a continuous increase in economic inequality, because they were designed by the elites, for the advantage of the elites.
Previous books by Alfani focused on the economic and social consequences of major catastrophes. The book Calamities and the Economy in Renaissance Italy (Palgrave 2013) discusses the impact of war, plague and famine in the different pre-unification Italian states during 1494-1629 - what Alfani dubs the "long sixteenth century". The book Famine in European History, a collection of essays which Alfani edited together with Cormac Ó Gráda, focused on major crises triggered by a scarcity of food (and/or of access to food). The book Pandemie d'Italia ("Italian Pandemics", Egea 2010, available in Italian edition only), which Alfani co-authored with Alessia Melegaro, covers the consequences of plagues (from the Black Death of the fourteenth century to the last plague epidemics affecting Italy in the early eighteenth century), of cholera pandemics, of the Spanish Flu and of other major influenza pandemics, of pandemics of sexually-transmitted infections such as syphilis and HIV, and closes with a discussion of recent pandemic threats, up to the "Swine Flu" influenza pandemic of 2009-10.
Alfani also published extensively in social history, particularly on the history of godparenthood and the spiritual kinship ties that it generated. To this topic he dedicated his first book, Fathers and Godfathers. Spiritual Kinship in Early-Modern Italy (Routledge 2009).
An economic and social historian and a historical demographer, he published extensively on Italy and Europe (and beyond), specialising in economic inequality and social mobility, in the history of epidemics and famines, in social alliance systems and social networks.
His most recent book, As Gods among Men. A History of the Rich in the West (Princeton University Press, 2023) is an ambitious attempt at providing a general history of the rich and the super-rich, and of how they obtained their wealth, from Antiquity until today.
His previous book, The Lion’s Share. Inequality and the Rise of the Fiscal State in Preindustrial Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2019), with Matteo Di Tullio, explores how preindustrial fiscal systems favoured a continuous increase in economic inequality, because they were designed by the elites, for the advantage of the elites.
Previous books by Alfani focused on the economic and social consequences of major catastrophes. The book Calamities and the Economy in Renaissance Italy (Palgrave 2013) discusses the impact of war, plague and famine in the different pre-unification Italian states during 1494-1629 - what Alfani dubs the "long sixteenth century". The book Famine in European History, a collection of essays which Alfani edited together with Cormac Ó Gráda, focused on major crises triggered by a scarcity of food (and/or of access to food). The book Pandemie d'Italia ("Italian Pandemics", Egea 2010, available in Italian edition only), which Alfani co-authored with Alessia Melegaro, covers the consequences of plagues (from the Black Death of the fourteenth century to the last plague epidemics affecting Italy in the early eighteenth century), of cholera pandemics, of the Spanish Flu and of other major influenza pandemics, of pandemics of sexually-transmitted infections such as syphilis and HIV, and closes with a discussion of recent pandemic threats, up to the "Swine Flu" influenza pandemic of 2009-10.
Alfani also published extensively in social history, particularly on the history of godparenthood and the spiritual kinship ties that it generated. To this topic he dedicated his first book, Fathers and Godfathers. Spiritual Kinship in Early-Modern Italy (Routledge 2009).
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December 17, 2024
thank you Alfani, couldn't have written this paper without you
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