Books & Media Reviews

Stalled Progress Against Hunger for Third Consecutive Year
For the third year in a row, global hunger remains persistently high after the increase during and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Nations’...

Book Classic: Famine, Conflict and Response by Fred Cuny
Book Classic: Famine, Conflict and Response: a Basic Guide By Fred Cuny, with Rick Hill (West Hartford, CN: Kumarian Press 1999) This basic, extremely readable text about famine prevention and relief remains a preferred textb...

BOOK REVIEW: The Enduring Struggle: The History of the U.S. Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World
BOOK REVIEW: The Enduring Struggle: The History of the U.S. Agency for International Development and America’s Uneasy Transformation of the World, by John Norris. 2021. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher. America's primary international assista...

The Razor’s Edge: Embezzlement, Corruption and Development in Ethiopia, a Novel (2022)
For anyone interested in learning what development work overseas entails and what work is like, there may be no better introduction than Robert Gurevich’s novel, The Razor’s Edge. Thinly modeled on his own experiences in Africa, with his protagonist, writing in the first person...

“Love and Liberation” Captures Voices of Local Aid Workers in Famine Zone
Lauren Carruth's important 2021 book, Love and Liberation - Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia's Somali Region (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press) fills a gap in the literature about aid programs by listening to the perspectives of those personnel delivering aid o...

Resilience Book Review: Ending Hunger – The Quest to Feed the World without Destroying It
Anthony Warner's 2022 book "Ending Hunger - the Quest to Feed the World Without Destroying it" (Oneworld Press) attempts to challenge the myths he sees in social discourse in developed countries about how to address world food problems. Based on his popular blog "the Angr...

Documentary Looks Back at Norman Borlaug’s Career
A recent documentary available from the Public Broadcast System (PBS) and WGBH "The Man Who Tried to Feed the World" (2020) briefly surveys the motivations and achievem...

Veterans Day Lessons for Current Livelihood Crisis
Veteran’s Day commemorates the many millions of American soldiers who returned home from wars with uncertainty about their futures and livelihoods. Veterans have faced an extended transition period as unemployed workers seeking to enter an often transforming economy. A prime example was at the...

A Biblical Surge of Miscommunication
On Language: In the popular media, including otherwise-intelligent talking heads and world leaders have invented new pretentious, uses for words that have little actual meaning. Chief among these are: "surge," "spike", "epicenter" and "biblical proportions." For example: the head ...

Peter Morris, Nutritionist and Long-term USAID Expert Leads WHES
The editorial staff of World Hunger Education Service recently sat down and interviewed Peter Morris for his insights about progress in international aid, hunger, nutrition and pandemics. Mr. M...