The Food History Reader: Primary Sources [Paperback]

With the proliferation of food history courses and avid interest among scholars and the general public, the need for a solid comprehensive collection of key primary texts about food of the past is urgent.

This collection spans the globe from classical antiquity to the present, offering substantive selections from cookbooks, fiction, gastronomic and dietary treatises and a wide range of food writing. Offering a solid introduction to each period with extensive commentary and suggestions for interpretive strategies, this reader provides extracts undigested, for the student who needs immediate and direct contact with the ideas of the past.

Readings illustrate the various ways religion, politics, social structure, health and agricultural policy shaped what people ate in the past and offer instructive ways to think about our own food systems and how they have been shaped by historical forces.

With the proliferation of food history courses and avid interest amongst scholars and the public, the need for a comprehensive collection of primary texts is urgent. This is the definitive reader, spanning the globe from classical antiquity to the present.

Ken Albalais Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, USA. He is the author or editor of 17 books includingEating Right in the Renaissance,The BanquetandBeans: A History. He has also coauthored two cookbooks,The Lost Art of Real CookingandThe Lost Arts of Hearth and Home.

A wonderfully rich celebration of our love of food through the ages. PD Smith,The Guardian

The real strength of this book is the richness and variety of the sources presented, for which Albala must be highly commended. [...]The Food History Readeris a very welcome addition to the field of food history and will serve as a most valuable text to students and researchers alike . . . It will be essential reading for any university course on the subj