Hunger as a Factor: The Influence of Hunger on Human Behavior, Social Organization, and Public Life

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Sorokin Pitirim 

Moscow, 2003

ISBN 5-87444-186-7

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Abstract

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This classic work of sociology presents, in the author's own words, an analysis of "the social role of nutrition in general and of hunger in particular."

The book also offers a sociological interpretation of the famine of the early 1920s, a catastrophic disaster that struck Russia and which Sorokin personally witnessed.

The history of this monograph is itself remarkable. Shortly after the author's expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1922, the work was suppressed by Soviet censorship. Only a few proof copies of the first 280 pages survived.

This edition restores the book in its entirety and may rightfully be regarded as the first complete publication of the work in Russia, the homeland of the eminent sociologist.

The volume also includes, as an appendix, Sorokin's articles published in 1921–1922, which complement the monograph thematically.