New Books in History Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Paul Poast, "Wheat at War: Allied Economic Cooperation in the Great War" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Mar 3, 2026
Paul Poast, an international-relations scholar of alliances, and Rosella Cappella Zielinski, a political-economy expert on conflict finance, discuss how World War I allies tackled wheat shortages. They narrate the crisis from stem rust and submarine warfare to the creation and workings of the Wheat Executive. They trace its evolution, US tensions over sovereignty, and its legacy for later Allied planning.
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Jean Monnet's Wheat Epiphany Led To Supranational Ideas
- The authors discovered Jean Monnet's wartime wheat role unexpectedly and followed that nugget into broader institutional history.
- Paul Poast recounts finding Monnet's quote linking his WWI wheat coordination to ideas that later shaped European integration.
War Destroyed Local Grain And Forced Long Distance Dependence
- Wheat shortages arose from destroyed local production and disrupted routes, creating a dire import dependence for belligerent states.
- Britain imported most of its bread and trench warfare plus cut Black Sea routes forced France and Britain to seek distant supplies.
Submarine Warfare And Crop Disease Created A Perfect Crisis
- Two simultaneous shocks made the wheat crisis acute: German unrestricted submarine warfare and a 1916 North American stem rust epidemic.
- Paul Poast highlights how falling harvests and sinking shipping together pushed Europeans toward emergency coordination.
