What does it feel like to starve? To feel your body cry out for
nourishment, to think only of food? How many fitful, hungry nights
must pass before dreams of home-cooked meals metastasize into
nightmares of cannibalism? Why would anyone volunteer to find out?
In "The Great Starvation Experiment," historian Todd Tucker
tells the harrowing story of thirty-six young men who willingly and
bravely faced down profound, consuming hunger. As conscientious
objectors during World War II, these men were eager to help in the
war effort but restricted from combat by their pacifist beliefs.
So, instead, they volunteered to become guinea pigs in one of the
most unusual experiments in medical history -- one that required a
year of systematic starvation.
Dr. Ancel Keys was already famous for inventing the K ration
when the War Department asked for his help with feeding the
starving citizens of Europe and the Far East at the war's end.
Fascists and Communists, it was feared, could gain a foothold in
war-ravaged areas. "Starved people," Keys liked to say, "can't be
taught Democracy." The government needed to know the best way to
rehabilitate those people who had been severely underfed during the
long war. To study rehabilitation, Keys first needed to create a
pool of starving test subjects.
Gathered in a cutting-edge lab underneath the football stadium
at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keys' test subjects forsook
most food and were monitored constantly so that Dr. Keys and his
scientists could study the effects of starvation on otherwise
healthy people. While the weight loss of the men followed a neat
mathematical curve, the psychological deterioration was less
predictable. Somemen drank quarts and quarts of water to fill their
empty stomachs. One man chewed as many as forty packs of gum a day.
One man mutilated himself to escape the experiment. Ultimately only
four of the men were expelled from the experiment for cheating -- a
testament to the volunteers' determination and toughness.
To prevent atrocities of the kind committed by the Nazi doctors,
international law now prevents this kind of experimentation on
healthy people. But in this remarkable book, Todd Tucker captures a
lost sliver of American history -- a time when cold scientific
principles collided with living, breathing human beings. Tucker
depicts the agony and endurance of a group of extraordinary men
whose lives were altered not only for the year they participated in
the experiment, but forever.
General
Imprint: |
The Free Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2006 |
First published: |
May 2006 |
Authors: |
Todd Tucker
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 20mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - With printed dust jacket
|
Pages: |
296 |
Edition: |
New |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-7432-7030-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Politics & government >
General
|
LSN: |
0-7432-7030-4 |
Barcode: |
9780743270304 |
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