The Great Starvation Experiment: The Heroic Men Who Starved so That Millions Could LiveSimon and Schuster, 2 במאי 2006 - 288 עמודים What does it feel like to starve? To feel your body cry out for nourishment, to think only of food? How many fitful, hungry nights must pass before dreams of home-cooked meals metastasize into nightmares of cannibalism? Why would anyone volunteer to find out? In The Great Starvation Experiment, historian Todd Tucker tells the harrowing story of thirty-six young men who willingly and bravely faced down profound, consuming hunger. As conscientious objectors during World War II, these men were eager to help in the war effort but restricted from combat by their pacifist beliefs. So, instead, they volunteered to become guinea pigs in one of the most unusual experiments in medical history -- one that required a year of systematic starvation. Dr. Ancel Keys was already famous for inventing the K ration when the War Department asked for his help with feeding the starving citizens of Europe and the Far East at the war's end. Fascists and Communists, it was feared, could gain a foothold in war-ravaged areas. "Starved people," Keys liked to say, "can't be taught Democracy." The government needed to know the best way to rehabilitate those people who had been severely underfed during the long war. To study rehabilitation, Keys first needed to create a pool of starving test subjects. Gathered in a cutting-edge lab underneath the football stadium at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keys' test subjects forsook most food and were monitored constantly so that Dr. Keys and his scientists could study the effects of starvation on otherwise healthy people. While the weight loss of the men followed a neat mathematical curve, the psychological deterioration was less predictable. Some men drank quarts and quarts of water to fill their empty stomachs. One man chewed as many as forty packs of gum a day. One man mutilated himself to escape the experiment. Ultimately only four of the men were expelled from the experiment for cheating -- a testament to the volunteers' determination and toughness. To prevent atrocities of the kind committed by the Nazi doctors, international law now prevents this kind of experimentation on healthy people. But in this remarkable book, Todd Tucker captures a lost sliver of American history -- a time when cold scientific principles collided with living, breathing human beings. Tucker depicts the agony and endurance of a group of extraordinary men whose lives were altered not only for the year they participated in the experiment, but forever. |
מהדורות אחרות - הצג הכל
מונחים וביטויים נפוצים
American Ancel Keys army asked average began blood body BOHS bread Brethren Brozek buddy system calories campus cheating cholesterol Civilian Public Service conscientious objectors diet doctors draft Ebeling ESIM famine father fight Friends Gandhi Goshen College grams graph Guetzkow guinea pigs heart disease Henry Scholberg Henry’s Historic Peace Churches human hunger hungry Ibid India Indiana Japanese Jay Garner Keys wanted knew Krogh laboratory Legg Legg’s Lester Glick look man’s Marshall Sutton Max Kampelman Max’s meal Mennonite Historical Library ment military Minneapolis MMPI months Nazi Nuremberg Code Nutrition pacifism pacifist percent Physiological Hygiene Plaugher pounds prisoners ration rehabilitation relief workers religious Sam’s scientific scientists seemed Selective Service Shevlin Hall soldiers stadium starvation experiment starvation phase starving test subjects tion took treadmill United University of Minnesota vitamin volunteers walked Watkins weight loss Weygandt Willoughby World wrote York young
קטעים בולטים
עמוד vi - Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
עמוד 223 - Nothing contained in this title shall be construed to require any person to be subject to combatant training and service in the armed forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form.
עמוד 100 - What aileth thee ? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him : and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him : and she hath hid her son.
עמוד 35 - And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to...
עמוד 118 - A genuine fast cleanses body, mind and soul. It crucifies the flesh and to that extent sets the soul free.
עמוד 189 - The person concerned has not declared unequivocally that he consents to the intervention; 3. The declaration has not been made on the basis of a proper explanation of the adverse consequences that may result from the intervention. II. In addition, I prescribe that: 1. Interventions of this nature may be performed only by the director of the institution himself or with his special authorization...
עמוד 58 - February 1933 voted 275-153 in support of the motion "that this House will in no circumstance fight for its King and Country.
עמוד 38 - They can be made to fire, but can very easily take bad aim. So, for the purpose, of giving to this command the highest degree of efficiency, and securing loyal feelings and co-operation, I have, as these non-combatants are said to be good teamsters and faithful to their promises, determined to organize them into companies...
עמוד 70 - What the island needs is not public health work but a tidal wave or something to totally exterminate the population. It might then be livable. I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off eight and transplanting cancer into several more. The latter has not resulted in any fatalities so far. . . . The matter of consideration for the patients...
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