HUNGER INFLUENCED LITERATURE
The term “Hungry Forties” reflected Europe’s food deprivation throughout much of the 1800s. The sustenance crises specific to this time period was led by the Great Irish Potato Famine beginning in 1845. The famine was cause by late blight, a water mold Phytophtora infestans, which destroyed the edible parts of the potatoes and consequently killed approximately one million Irish. The effects of the diseased potato crops could be seem throughout Europe, although not quite as significant as the Irish. Another cause of hunger in Europe was the failure of the grain crops (Vanhaute, 2006). Combined, these two major crop failures created a preoccupation and obsession with food and its acquisition. This website explores how hunger influenced some of the insects' creation in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and how entomophagy seems to be the answer to our food supply problems.