Hunger strikes are among the most important forms of protest today. The book examines their "invention" and establishment in the USA from a transnational perspective. Closely oriented towards the actors and their living environments, it reconstructs the intricate and conflictual processes of appropriation and debates about hunger strikes as a social practice from their invention in the late 19th century to Gandhi's reception in the fight against racial segregation. Maximilian Buschmann shows that hunger strikes are about politics of the body and recognition as well as defending a rebellious self challenged by regimes of punishment and knowledge.