Feeding Occupied France During World War I : Herbert Hoover and the Blockade

This book examines the history of Herbert Hoover’s Commission for Relief in Belgium, which supplied humanitarian aid to the millions of civilians trapped behind German lines in Belgium and Northern France during World War I. Here, Clotilde Druelle focuses on the little-known work of the CRB in Northern France, crossing continents and excavating neglected archives to tell the story of daily life under Allied blockade in the region. She shows how the survival of 2.3 million French civilians came to depend upon the transnational mobilization of a new sort of diplomatic actor—the non-governmental organization. Lacking formal authority, the leaders of the CRB claimed moral authority, introducing the concepts of a “humanitarian food emergency” and “humanitarian corridors” and ushering in a new age of international relations and American hegemony. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Herbert C. Hoover: The American Epic (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 1-21 The Occupation of Belgium and Northern France (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 23-78 The Significance of the Royal Navy’s Blockade of Europe (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 79-125 The Progressive Coordination of the Supply (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 127-185 Occupied France: Administration, Protection, and Validation (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 187-248 Time of Contradictions: Supply in the Heart of the Total War Spring 1917–Fall 1918 (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 249-300 The “End of Innocence,” 1918–1919 (Clotilde Druelle)....Pages 301-327 Back Matter ....Pages 329-357