Food History: Critical and Primary Sources

Description

Food History: Critical and Primary Sources is an indispensable four-volume reference collection which focuses on the widest possible span of food in human history, to provide a comprehensive survey of problems and methods in the field of food history. Bringing together over 80 high-quality essays drawn from journal articles, book chapters, excerpts and historical documents and supported by introductory essays and a wealth of contextual material, this important new reference work combines contemporary scholarship with selected primary sources allowing scholars to use this as a starting point for their own historical research. The volumes are divided chronologically, moving from human evolution and the origins of complex societies to the agrarian and pastoral societies of the classical and post-classical eras, to the age of global contact and early industrialization, to the transition to industrial diets in the contemporary era. Each volume is introduced by an essay from the editor and is divided into broad thematic categories and offers a range of methodological approaches, multidisciplinary appeal and broad geographical coverage, highlighting how the field has developed over time and investigating how and why food is different at different points in world history. This will be an essential addition to libraries and a major scholarly resource for researchers involved in the study of food in world history.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher is Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of books on food in Mexican and world history, including the prize-winning Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican History, The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise and Meat in Mexico City and Food in World History. He is also editor of the Oxford Handbook of the History of Food.

According to its preface, this set "seeks to guide readers through the voluminous literature now available on the history and culture of food." This interdisciplinary, chronologically arranged collection of 76 previously published works compiled by Pilcher begins with human evolution and the establishment of agrarian and pastoral societies and ends with coverage of provisions in the 21st century. VERDICT: An excellent research starting point that may be of some interest to history, anthropology, cuisine, and nutrition students and faculty. -- Laurie Selwyn * Library Journal *