Food in History (edition 1995)

Not quite what I was expecting. Thorough but dull and dry. Not something read for pleasure and painful for even the most enthusiastic of food history/anthropology/sociology buffs. ( )

Not quite what I was expecting. Thorough but dull and dry. Not something read for pleasure and painful for even the most enthusiastic of food history/anthropology/sociology buffs. ( )

4.5 stars. Does what it says on the cover. The book discusses the history of food in an interesting and easy to read manner. illustrations included. ( )

Read this for my Food in History course at college and really enjoyed it. Here and there it's a bit repetitive, so I gave it the four stars instead of five because the writing could be tightened a bit. However, the author if British and hilarious here and there, some of the footnotes she adds are just her own comments. If you're interested in the development of food, farming, meals, cuisine, etc, from really the dawn of time through the 1980s, I'd pick this up, even if you only wanted to read a particular section on Food in Sumer or Fillet of Pegasus. ( )

I read this book a few years ago (softcover book), and it sits as a treasured book in my collection (I'd like to have a hard cover of it one day). This is a fantastic reference book. It begins where humans began, back in the caves, and gives archeological evidence as well as common sense theories on how certain foods likely came to be, such as yogurt and butter were probably discovered because of the practice of traveling with milk in the dried stomachs of animals. And one thing leads to another. The book is full of fascinating points on the usage, origin and development of all kinds of food, and not just covering the western world. Nearly every country is mentioned, though as the author freely admits, written history needs to be taken with a... grain of salt, so to speak.

I have several food history books in my collection - this one is my favorite that I flip through time and again. ( )