Caramelle, caramelle! American food and Italians in the Second World War: propaganda, othering, and food exchange

Abstract: This article considers the function of American food and its exchange at the time of the Allied occupation of Italy to revisit the complexity of the encounter with the local population. Through unpublished diaries and confidential reports of the Psychological Warfare Branch, as well as video materials, published interviews and published diaries, the article makes the issues around food central to the understanding of the dynamics of the Italian occupation. While contributing to the growing literature on food availability in the Second World War, the article expands in particular on the historic function of American comfort food and rations, to explore the experience of the Italian occupation through the interactions of gifting, bartering and black market trade. It illuminates the complexity of mutual perceptions shaped by hope, nostalgia, supremacy, and fairness. It concludes with a reading of John Hersey’s A Bell for Adano, which, as a cultural product, brings together and makes valid for future generations, the contrasting image of a benign and a damaging occupation explored in the article.

Author(s): Patrizia Sambuco

Date Published: 23 February 2026

Depositing User: Selina Gondwe

DOI: doi:10.1017/mit.2026.10127

Keywords: C and K rations; comfort food; A Bell for Adano; wartime diaries; black market; Allied landing

Page(s): 239-252

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-italy/article/caramelle-caramelle-american-food-and-italians-in-the-second-world-war-propaganda-othering-and-food-exchange/AA7F0CEFCF60A1F8C90D63ED7F524984

Publication Title: Modern Italy

Type of publication: Research Article