Christian Gerlach is Professor of History at the University of Bern. His fields of research are mass violence, war and the history of agriculture, food, hunger and development. Among his earlier books is Extremely Violent Societies: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century World (2010).

1. Introduction: the Global Level 2. The World Food Crisis, 1972-75 3. A Global Wave of Famines 4. The Small Peasant approach to Combatting Hunger and Poverty; Ideas and Breakthrough 5. Degrees of Implementation: Global Perspectives 6. Unexpected Limits of Growth: The Spread of Capital and Technology 7. Bangladesh: Impoverishment, Hunger and Credit 8. Indonesia: Limits to Farming Intensification and Poverty Alleviation 9. Tanzania: Impoverishment after Enforced Villagization 10. Mali: Changes in the Neglected Drylands 11. Comparing the Case Studies 12. Projections and Predictions: Imagining the Future 13. An "Effective Utilization of Women" 14. The Bigger Picture

Together with an in-depth account of the world food crisis, this book analyses how this global scheme largely failed.