Beyond bully beef: soldiers, food and transcultural interactions in World War I

Important recent scholarship has highlighted the social, cultural, religious and emotional significance of food, drink and hunger in wartime. Much of this work has taken World War I as its focus. However, the particular effects of eating as an intercultural encounter is an area so far underexplored in the history of World War I. This article examines these aspects of daily life in war time through the records of diaries, memoirs, soldier newspapers and propaganda to provide greater insight into the strategic, symbolic and emotional role of food and drink for soldiers in diverse World War I armies. Our article shows that food and drink are frequently objects of intercultural exchange. This exchange is revealing not just of the material conditions of war time, but of the social, cultural and emotional contours of the intercultural encounters forced by this global conflagration.