Overview

The first book to explore the critical problem of provisioning the “megacity” Over the past decade 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, Daniel F. Doeppers traces a century in the life of Manila, one of the world’s great megacities, to show how it grew and what sustained it. Although the export of commodities played a role, Doeppers argues that change in this era was also fueled by the relationship between the metropolis and the surrounding countryside, and in particular by the country’s ability to provide the city’s population with food and drink. Doeppers follows each commodity—rice, produce, fish, fowl, meat, milk, flour, coffee—in its complex connections with other commodities. 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.

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9780299305109

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Reviews

After forty years research in the streets of Manila and archives on three continents, Doeppers has produced a landmark study in the fields of urban history and human geography. Empirically, this book is the first to chart Manila s rise from a small port to a nascent metropolis, spinning a narrative that ends tragically midst the mass starvation and fiery destruction of World War II. Theoretically, Feeding Manila offers a path-breaking analysis of the urban-rural linkages that sustained this rapid urbanization over the span of a century, illuminating a problem increasingly critical in a world of hungry megacities. Methodologically, Doeppers deftly merges a mass of historical documentation into a taut analytical narrative. In sum, a stunning scholarly achievement. Alfred W. McCoy, author of Policing America s Empire The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State

Outstanding, wide-ranging scholarship shines in every chapter. Doeppers crafts a thoughtful, well-reasoned analysis of provisioning Manila and comparable cities. This is a sterling example of how to investigate and analyze such questions, not only for other parts of the Philippines but elsewhere in Southeast Asia and beyond. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Australian National University

An almost omniscient vista of this critical time frame in Manila's urban history: straddling the last half-century of the Spanish regime, the four decades under U.S. colonialism, and the chaotic three years under Japanese occupation. Feeding Manila is Doeppers at his best. -Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde

Author Information

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

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