Relief on the Hoof (eBook)

The Seagoing Cowboys, the Heifer Project, and UNRRA in Poland

Eva Plach (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
324 Seiten
Northern Illinois University Press (Verlag)
9781501783906 (ISBN)

Infos

Relief on the Hoof is about the thousands of horses and cattle that the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) shipped as humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of WWII and about the "seagoing cowboys" who cared for the animals during their trans-Atlantic journeys. UNRRA contracted the Church of the Brethren to recruit almost 7,000 men to do this work, and in exchange provided free passage on its ships to the cattle that were part of the Brethren's own humanitarian initiative, the Heifer Project. The Heifer Project emerged from a conviction that cows and their milk offered the best value as relief commodities.

As Eva Plach shows, both UNRRA's animal aid program and the Heifer Project were responding to a crisis in postwar Europe. Millions of livestock were lost during the war, and contemporary experts warned that postwar recovery, food security, and the prevention of social and political unrest would be compromised without replenishing the lost herds.

Poland received more Heifer Project cattle than any other country and was the major recipient of UNRRA cattle and horses as well. Relief on the Hoof shows that Poland's special status, based on assessments of wartime destruction and postwar need, reflected its unique geopolitical importance as Cold War tensions mounted.

Autor

Eva Plach is a social and cultural historian specializing in the history of twentieth-century Poland. She teaches modern European history, concentrating on the history of the Holocaust.

Inhalt

Introduction: Global Agents of Humanitarian Aid
1. UNRRA, Food, and Winning the Peace
2. The UNRRA-Brethren Service Committee Partnership
3. On Becoming a Seagoing Cowboy
4. Working Animals as Humanitarian Aid
5. The Making of "Relief Animals"
6. Cowboys and Animals at Sea
7. Bovines, Equines, and Humans in Poland
8. UNRRA and Animal Politics in Poland
9. Heifer Project Animals in Poland
Conclusion: Humanitarian Imaginaries

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
• Zusatzinfo: 15 b&w halftones
• Verlagsort: Ithaca
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: United Nations, Brethren Church, post WWII, relief commodity, humanitarianism, food security, religious aid, recovered territories
• ISBN-13: 9781501783906 / 9781501783906