“The Starving Empire: A History of Famine in France's Colonies”
Map series for publication
A series of maps for The Starving Empire: A History of Famine in France's Colonies by historian Yan Slobodkin.
A series of 5 maps were assembled in collaboration with Prof. Slobodkin, using a variety of source materials. The maps were prepared respecting the technical limitations of the publisher (greyscale / vector format / sized for print), and designed to coherently and elegantly display the information most relevant to author’s research.
The book was published by Cornell University Press in late 2023.
From the publisher: “The Starving Empire traces the history of famine in the modern French Empire, showing that hunger is intensely local and sweepingly global, shaped by regional contexts and the transnational interplay of ideas and policies all at once. By integrating food crises in Algeria, West and Equatorial Africa, and Vietnam into a broader story of imperial and transnational care, Yan Slobodkin reveals how the French colonial state and an emerging international community took increasing responsibility for subsistence, but ultimately failed to fulfill this responsibility.”
I encourage you read the summary in full if you find this interesting. Yan Slobodkin’s piece for Slate: What the Debate Over Famine in Gaza Is Missing (April 2024) is also an incredibly illuminating article about the use of famine as a war tactic.