Belinda Davis Home Fires Burning Chapter Summary

Review of Belinda Davis’ Home Fires Burning
In many books in the history of WWI, the Kiel Mutiny is regarded as the final nail in the coffin of the German Empire. Dozens of theories can explain the sudden collapse of the empire in November 1918, some of which hint that the starvation in the “turnip winter” undermined the German war effort. However, Belinda Davis’ Home Fires Burning indicates that long before the terrible hunger between 1916 and 1917, the shortage of milk, butter, or other foodstuff had already been destabilizing the Reich. She describes that the British naval blockade and embargo devastated the import-dependent German food system. Focusing on Berlin, the book suggests that the protest against unequal and inadequate food supply motivated a marginalized social group, “women of lesser means” to come to the street politics. The authorities in Berlin had to meet continually the new demands of these women to control food price and distribution. When the demands for food
The women of little means were tasked with “the purchase, preparation, and consumption of food in a German household” (33). Thus, they were usually isolated from the high-end politics. The shortage of food during WWI provided them the opportunity to leverage the food issue to make their voice heard by the top governmental and military officials. Thus, these women of little means shared a similar experience with the wives in the North during the Civil War described in Giesberg’s Army at Home, who confronted relief officials to demand aids to secure their food and housing. However, unlike their American counterparts’ street politics, the low class female Berliners, did not participate the politics more than their basic survival---safe working conditions, racial equality/privileges, or body