Policymakers and scholars have come to realize that getting food, water, and services to the millions who live in the world's few dozen megacities is one of the twenty-first century's most formidable challenges. As these populations continue to grow, apocalyptic scenarios--sprawling slums plagued by hunger, disease, and social disarray--become increasingly plausible. In Feeding Manila in Peace and War, 1850-1945 by Daniel F. Doeppers traces nearly a century in the life of Manila, one of the world's great megacities, to show how it grew and what sustained it. Doeppers follows key commodities for the city--rice, produce, fish, fowl, meat, mil, flour, coffee--and their complex interconnections. In the process he considers the changing ecology of the region as well as the social fabric that weaves together farmers, merchants, transporters, storekeepers, and door-to-door vendors.

Daniel F. Doeppers is a professor emeritus of geography and Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2021/444pp
bookpaper/paperback