Jessica Dijkman is Assistant Professor in economic history at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.Bas van Leeuwen is Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands.

• 1. Resilience to famine ca. 600 BC-present: an introduction Jessica Dijkman and Bas van Leeuwen 1. Central issue 2. Theories and concepts 3. Famine resilience in historical research 4. Some general patterns Part IPremodern world 2. Responses to food shortages in core regions of antiquity compared Bas van Leeuwen and Jieli Li 1. Introduction 2. The nature of famines in core regions 3. Societal resilience 4. Concluding comparison 3. Political, social and economic determinants of responses to food crises in the early Roman empire Luuk de Ligt 1. Introduction 2. Famines and food shortages in the Roman world 3. The food supply of the city of Rome 4. Intervention by provincial governors 5. The role of free trade in resolving urban food crises 6. Public institutions and private benefactors 7. Benefactors, public grain-buyers and the grain market 8. Conclusions 4. Feeding the hungry: Poor relief and famine in northwestern Europe, 1500-1700 Jessica Dijkman 1. Introduction 2. Southeastern England 3. The northwestern Low Countries 4. Northwestern France 5. Conclusions 5. Inca responses to environmental hazards in the capital region and provinces R. Alan Covey 1. Introduction 2. Andean hazards and food supplies 3. Inca state interventions in the Cuzco region 4. Inca state intervention in provincial regions 5. Conclusions 6. Coping with famines in Ottoman Anatolia (1650-1850) Semih Çelik 1. Introduction 2. “There is famine everywhere; no bread to eat” – Bread prices and chronology of famines in Anatolia (1650-1850) 3. Crises in detail 4. Flight, migration and settlement pattern changes 5. Changes in economic activities 6. “If you are subjects of the sultan, so are we!” – Politics of famine resilience 7. “What do you mean by hunger?” – Politics of famine resilience 8. Conclusion Part IIModern world 7. Whose famine? Regional differences in vulnerability and resilience during the 1840s potato famine in Belgium Esth