Signed. IACP Award winner.

A microhistory in twelve chapters, ten of which concentrate on one bean family and its corresponding global locale: the first one, for instance, is Lentils: the Fertile Crescent.

One of the longest and most interesting chapters was Fava Beans: Europe. Favas go back to pre-Greek civilizations and are still a primary source of protein in Egypt, but lost some of their cachet when Pythagoras issued a cryptic order to his followers to abstain from all beans. They persevered as a staple for Roman artisans, then were Lenten food for peasants who couldn’t afford fish. Favas ended up being associated with people who couldn’t afford anything else, and even though many people lived on favas there was a class-based prejudice against them. Cookbooks, even those that tried to appeal to the common folk, rarely mentioned them. Eventually they were primarily fed to horses—though lately they’ve had a comeback among gourmets.

The other key chapter was Phaseolus vulgaris: Mexico and the World. Phaseolus vulgaris is one species, but it appears in many distinct forms: navy beans, red kidney beans, black beans, and string beans are all the same species. This chapter surveys the spread of these popular varieties around the world, North American attitudes toward beans (covering some health fads, immigrant attitudes, and New England), and the relatively healthy place beans have in Latin American food culture.

Shorter chapters involve teparies, barely edible "oddballs and villains," and Lima beans, which are a bit removed from the mainstream.

There are some fascinating histories and even a few interesting recipes. The orientation is sociological and somewhat Marxist, though not rhetorically so; he’s sensitive to the ebb and flow of cultures, the disenfranchisement of social classes, and the dubious “improvements” that multinationals have made to these and other plants.

All in all, fascinating. The proofreading in this edition, sad to say, was nonexistent, and the cover was bound upside-down. Albala is a respected writer, and several of his books are considered important in food history studies, so I don’t know what the problem was here. ( )