Starving Strikers

By the late nineteenth century, the hungry increasingly found themselves constructed as objects of compassion. In an IRSH research article (56, 2011) Andy Croll argues that there were real limits to the "humanitarian discovery of hunger". Compassionate citizens were particularly troubled by the mass distress that often accompanied lengthy strikes. How should they respond to such hunger?

Andy Crolls study reveals that a gendered discourse evolved which repeatedly concentrated attention on the starving "innocents": the wives and children of male strikers. It adjudged the "innocents" worthy recipients of food aid, whilst frequently ignoring the hunger of the striking male and denying him support.