Food: A History

Fülszöveg

'Fascinating and thought provoking. It is packed with information and ideas, and rich with humour and anecdote' Sue Shephard, Times Literary Supplement
We are what we eat. Every ingredient of our past and our present can be read off our plates: our identity, our place in society, even the place of our society in the world.
The story of food is cultural as well as culinary history, as much ecology as gastronomy. Food: A History ranges over half a million years but Felipe Femandez-Armesto always makes it contemporary, tracing it back to current food trends and familiar
exotic cuisines.
At the heart of the story are eight revolutions in the history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other species; the ritualization of eating, which brought magic and meaning into people's relationship with what they ate;
the invention of agriculture; the rise of inequality, which made food an indicator of status; the long-range exchanges of foodstuffs,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

'Fascinating and thought provoking. It is packed with information and ideas, and rich with humour and anecdote' Sue Shephard, Times Literary Supplement
We are what we eat. Every ingredient of our past and our present can be read off our plates: our identity, our place in society, even the place of our society in the world.
The story of food is cultural as well as culinary history, as much ecology as gastronomy. Food: A History ranges over half a million years but Felipe Femandez-Armesto always makes it contemporary, tracing it back to current food trends and familiar
exotic cuisines.
At the heart of the story are eight revolutions in the history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other species; the ritualization of eating, which brought magic and meaning into people's relationship with what they ate;
the invention of agriculture; the rise of inequality, which made food an indicator of status; the long-range exchanges of foodstuffs, which broke down cultural barriers; the ecological exchanges, which revolutionized the global distribution of plants and livestock; the industrialization and globalization of food.
Because food is a cultural indicator. Food: A History is a sampler of civilizations. Because we meet our environment most intimately when we eat it, the book is an exploration in historical ecology. Because cooking was the first chemistry and the first distinctively human culture, this is a book of the history of science and society. Because food is the focus of current crises, this is a work full of issues and implications
for our future.
Above all, perhaps, because food is universally appealing and topical, Food: A History is always - even at its most instructive - unashamedly a book of human pleasures.
'Move over, Ainsley - here comes an Oxford scholar to tell us how to eat . both analytical and entertaining. Perfect for food boffins' Independent on Sunday
'Anyone who enjoj's food and, even more, talks about food and, most of all, talks about food while eating food will want this book' Digby Anderson, Spectator
'A sparkling ramble through history which scatters countless pointers to new research along the way. It is intellectual history, but not in the least bit arid: his opinions are strong, but supremely palatable' Giles MacDonagh, Financial Times
Cover image: The Bndgeman Art Library
Non-Fiction
ISBN 0-330-49U4-X
9 0 10 0
iiiiimiiniil
9780330491440 Vissza