I was interested in seeing what the great and wise internet had to say about starvation in the United States during the Great Depression. Having argued with another poster about FDR's farm subsidies and their impact on starvation, I was curious what the net orthodoxy was. I knew from my college days that most mainstream historians, and most impartial records, said there was very little in the way of starvation during the great depression. Yes, there was hunger and poverty, there were people who suffered, but as far as individuals involuntarily starving to death, the numbers were small. But I also know internet "facts" are often at variance with facts as commonly understood, so I decided to review the net.

The first post I saw was refreshingly moderate, writing that starvation was uncommon. So did the second, though as it used the exact same words as the first, that wasn't surprising. Then again, the second post was Encarta and the first a school site, so they both likely reflected the consensus of reasonable historians who rely on boring things like official records and other evidence which fails to produce lurid tales of mass starvation. And so I was beginning to worry that the internet was actually rather temperate on this topic, and I would find nothing of interest.

And then we hit the crazy posts.The first proposed that one person died of starvation every six minutes during the great depression. That actually is a rather modest number, working out to under 90,000 a year. Though that still is enough you would think historians would have noticed. But 90,000 a year pales in comparison tot he next claim.

Proving that all authoritarians are the same whether "left" socialist or "racist" socialists, Stormfront has their own absurd numbers, arguing that 7 million people died of starvation during the Great Depression, 6 million of them being farmers. Of course, as FDR is hated by Nazis for taking out Hitler, of course they are prone to find fault with him. It doesn't make these Nazis "right wing" as the left argues, they are every bit as interventionist and authoritarian as any leftist, they simply dislike FDR. Sharing rivals does not prove a common belief system, and there really is no link between conservatives and national socialists, despite Pat Buchanan's absurd rants.

After that we drift into the usual leftist feel-bad claptrap. "Millions died of starvation during the depression. And our current depression will starve millions more as we no longer live close to the land..." blah blah blah...

The truth is, at least as far as historical records are concerned, that famine as a phenomenon was long gone by the time of the Depression. And, if you think about it, that only makes sense. A nation that in 1941 could gear up and fight a war, starting from an almost nonexistent military and produce in a short time, not only an army of 16 million, but also enough to help equip the Soviets as well as provide additional supplies for the British, all while supplying adequate food and other necessities for the home front, is not going to be afflicted by outright starvation. The nation by 1929 had developed, in most areas, adequate transportation systems, as well as state welfare systems, to fend off the worst of starvation. The only places that saw food shortages were the same remote areas which saw food shortages prior to the Depression.

Why do I bring this up?

That is simple to explain. The internet, wonderful as it is, is also full of incorrect information. I have complained about Wikipedia, but Wikipedia is relatively reliable compared to much else that is one the internet. And that does not just include patently opinionated sites, there are many seemingly impartial or even scholarly sites which are just filled with incorrect information. Not that books were always reliable, but books were costly to produce, while the internet has almost zero publication cost. Thanks to that, the sheer volume of errors has increased dramatically with the advent of the internet.

And how does this relate to my usual topics?

That is easy to explain too. As I mentioned before, you will often hear political arguments backed up by "mystery quotes", quotes attributed to public figures but without any primary source. Recently, I wrote about a number of such quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh, for example, in an effort to paint him as a racist. 

But we do not just see arguments base don mystery quotes, we also see them base don mystery facts, including the myth of widespread starvation during the Great Depression. And these mystery facts are self-perpetuating. Someone invents a "fact" upon which they base an argument, someone else picks it up and posts it somewhere on the web. Another reads that post and uses it in an argument, and so on and so on, until the original source of the alleged fact can point to thousands of google hits "supporting" his version of the truth.

I know it makes me no friends, I know it annoys others to no end, but this is why I always insist that those promoting spurious facts, whether the starving throngs during the Depression or Hitler's strong allegiance to Christianity, provide me with a primary source. Sometimes I relent and accept mention in a reliable historical work, or several, but no longer will I listen to an argument supported by nothing more than internet posts, or even journalists' assertions. Far too often those sources are used to do nothing more than smuggle spurious facts into an argument, and that does no one any favors when trying to determine the truth.

POSTSCRIPT

I have had a terrible time finding official statistics on line to provide some sane numbers. I am sure I could compile them after a lot of digging, but it is alarmingly easy to come up with sites screaming in 15 point headlines about the US causing world wide famine and "faking 9/11", while the actual statistical data is not so easily found.

I did find one useful article in my research. Pravda provided the source of the 7 million starvation deaths during the Great Depression. Apparently some Russian researcher alleges the US covered up starvation deaths. The problem being twofold. Vital statistics are kept by states and even localities, and the split between state and federal authority was still taken very seriously in the 1930's, so I doubt FDR could have "erased" 7 million deaths, even had he wanted to. Second, the food security of the US was such even in the late 19th century that we were the haven for those fleeing famine. Even a life of poverty in the US promised more food security than other lands. That does not sound like a nation that, after 50 more years of development, would suffer 7 million deaths due to an economic downturn, even a large downturn exacerbated by bad government policies.

Trust me, I would be thrilled if I could blame FDR's policies for doing harm. I don't like FDR and have no reason to lie for him. But much as I disliked his politics and think he harmed the nation, claims that he caused 7 million deaths due to starvation are up there with claims about grassy knolls, remote control planes and bombs on levees. The US simply did not suffer large scale starvation in the 20th century.

POSTSCRIPT II

I finally found some composite statistics for the entire 20th century. It does not list all causes, but does list the top 10. For the 1930's not only does starvation not appear, but neither does a disease which could be a likely complication of starvation. It is not enough to prove my statement that there were very few, if any, deaths due to starvation, but it does show that even the most modest claims above (even the 90,000 per year) are far too high, or else they would have appeared on these charts.

Not conclusive proof I am right, but a pretty strong suggestion I am.

UPDATE

Actually, this post is rather timely as tomorrow I think I am finally going to complete an article I have intended to write for a few days. It is a rather amusing look at a series of quotes attributed to "the American Taliban." There is one quote, part of Ann Coulter's post 9/11 rant about Islam, that I know is true, but the rest, including a quote I have seen repeatedly attributed to Bob Dornan, are suspect at best. So expect yet another post on mystery quotes and unreliable evidence soon.

NOTE(04/25/2009): As this article still seems to get quite a few hits from those searching for information about starvation during the Great Depression, I read over it and noticed an exceptional number of typos, even for me. So I have come back and corrected the most obvious errors. Hopefully it will be a slightly more enjoyable read now that it is a little more intelligible.