Cultural studies: food and society Books

Over the last thirty years, we have seen an increase in rates of cancer, neurodegenerative disease, reproductive disorders, and diabetes, particularly in developed countries. At the same time, since the end of World War II approximately 100,000 synthetic...

Few know that world hunger was very nearly eradicated in our lifetimes. In the past five years, however, widespread starvation has suddenly reappeared, and chronic hunger is a major issue on every continent. In an extensive investigation of this...

If a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn't food play a larger role in our dialogue about how and where we live? The food of a metropolis is essential to its character. Native plants, proximity to farmland, the locations of...

This collection of essays provides an overview of new scholarship on recipe books, one of the most popular non-fiction printed texts in, and one of the most common forms of manuscript compilation to survive from, the pre-modern era (c.1550-1800). This is...

Newly available in paperback, this book provides the first comprehensive evaluation of Britain's food laws from the 1860s to the 1930s and the first analysis of the Victorian anti-adulteration legislation for over 25 years. The book brings important...

The 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in the UK had a devastating and long-lasting impact on individuals and communities. Although many studies about FMD have been published since 2001, this is the first book to examine in any detail the ways in which...

This is a book about the risk politics of food safety. Food-related risks regularly grab the headlines in ways that threaten reasoned debate and obstruct sensible policy making. In this book, Ed Randall explains why this is the case. He goes on to make...

China in Seven Banquets ranges through 5,000 years of China's food history in seven iconic meals, from the opulent Eight Treasures fete to the 'Tail-Burning' banquet of the Tang Dynasty and the Qing court's extravagant...

A guide to the cultural history of liqueurs from a celebrated spirits journalist. The original recreational spirit, liqueurs travelled the Silk Road, awaited travellers at the Fountain of Youth, and traversed the globe from ancient times through the...

The hidden history of an economic and cultural crisis that is threatening our very food supply-the disappearance of the American farmer."An anthem to the family farm in America." -The Associated PressTaking on this working-class story of heart and...

Does God have a recipe?"Holy Foodis a titanic feat of research and a fascinating exploration of American faith and culinary rites. Christina Ward is the perfect guide generous, wise, and ecumenical." -Adam Chandler, author ofDrive-Thru Dreams"Holy Food...

In the tradition of Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, and Mark Bittman, 'a surprising, flavorsome tour of ancient cuisines' (Kirkus) from Neolithic bread to ancient Roman fish sauce and why reviving the foods of the past is the key to...

In this lively and fascinating book, a guilt-ridden, bacon-loving journalist finds work at an industrial pig farm as he researches the long and torrid history of humans and swine.After convincing a skeptical pig farmer to take him on as a hired hand for...

When we eat, we eat the world: taking something from outside and making it part of us. But what does it taste of? And can we develop our taste? In Taste, Sarah Worth argues that taste is a sense that needs educating, for the real pleasures of eating only...

This is a global history of hummus bi-tahina, the delicious combination of chickpeas, tahini, lemon and garlic that we know and love as hummus. The story begins in the medieval kitchens of the near and middle east and ends with its rise in popularity in...

Spanning 65,000 years, this book provides a history of food in Australia from its beginnings, with the arrival of the first peoples and their stewardship of the land, to a present where the production and consumption of food is fraught with anxieties and...

Whether they make it themselves or just enjoy it with breakfast, people can be passionate about their favourite jam, jelly or marmalade. Award-winning jam-maker Sarah B. Hood looks at the history of these sweet treats from simple fruit preserves to...

Sushi and sashimi are by now a global sensation and have become perhaps the best known of Japanese foods but they are also the most widely misunderstood. Oishii: The History of Sushi reveals that sushi began as a fermented food with a sour taste, used as...

Fermented Foods serves up the history and science behind some of the world's most enduring food and drink. It begins with wine, beer and other heady brews before going on to explore the often whimsical histories of fermented breads, dairy,...

Explore the dramatic history of the world's most expensive spice in Saffron: A Global HistoryLiterally worth their weight in gold, sunset-red saffron threads are prized internationally. Saffron can be found in cave art in Mesopotamia, in the frescoes of...

This book examines the dynamics underpinning the implementation of Zimbabwe's fast track land reforms. By utilising ethnographic data gathered in central Zimbabwe, the book goes beyond the polarised debates which dominated scholarship in the earlier...

Cautioning against a simplistic reading of the GM controversy as merely a debate of science versus politics, Aristeidis Panagiotou suggests that the discussion should be embedded in the wider social, political, economic and cultural contexts. Structure,...

With a celebrated food writer as host, a delectable history of Roman cuisine and the world - served one dish at a time. 'There is more history in a bowl of pasta than in the Colosseum', writes Andreas Viestad in Dinner in Rome. From the...

The world food system is put under the microscope in this updated edition of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food. Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and economic disaster. He...

Berries are enmeshed with human history. Widely available in nature, they have been part of the human diet for millennia, and today they inspire everything from lip-gloss flavours to amusement parks. However diminutive their size, berries are of such...

Perfumed, sweet, succulent, cooling; a ripe melon can be one of the most delicious of fruits. Sylvia Lovegren untangles the melon's long and complex history and follows the journeys of the varied fruits known as melons from the sandy wastes of the...

For over a century, the banana has been rumoured to be everybody's favourite fruit. Quick and easy to eat, tasty and versatile in its culinary uses, the banana is a staple of many diets around the world. The banana's history, however, is more than simply...

Double-decker buses, bowler hats, and cricket may be synonymous with British culture, but when it comes to their cuisine, nothing comes to mind faster than fish and chips. Sprinkled with salt and vinegar and often accompanied by mushy peas, fish and...

This is a detailed history of rice, from its origin as a staple food in Asian and West African countries to its ubiquitous place in meals across the world today. It explores rice in society, literature, music, painting and...

This book explores the apple's history and the latest debates about the use of agrichemicals, the rise of organic and heirloom orchards, and the hopes and fears of genetic crop modification. Beautifully illustrated with...

A writer and anthropologist searches for wild foods - and reveals what we lose in a world where wildness itself is misunderstood, commodified, and hotly pursuedTwo centuries ago, nearly half the North American diet was found in the wild. Today, so-called...

Thewhite colonisers of Australia suffered from Alliumphobia, a fear ofgarlic. Local cooks didn't touch the stuff and it took centuries for that fearto lift. This food history of Australia shows we held onto British assumptionsabout...

'This is a book about Australian food, not the foods that European Australians cooked from ingredients they brought with them, but the flora and fauna that nourished the Aboriginal peoples for over 50,000 years. It is because European...

How was Istanbul, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire and now the financial heart of contemporary Turkey, provisioned in the early 19th century? Tracing how the sovereign's duty to provision the city and protect his subjects from hunger was gradually...

An Introduction to Carnism."An important and groundbreaking contribution to the struggle for the welfare of animals." - Yuval Harari,New York Timesbest-selling author ofSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"An absorbing examination of why humans feel...

Nearly every culture has a variation on the dumpling: histories, treatises, family legends, and recipes about the world's favourite lump of carbs.If the world's cuisines share one common food, it might be the dumpling, a dish that can be found...

This book explores the emergence and expansion of global kosher and halal markets with a particular focus on the UK and Denmark. Kosher is a Hebrew term meaning 'fit' or 'proper' while halal is an Arabic word that literally means 'permissible'...

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the crusade against sugar rose to prominence as an urgent societal problem about which something needed to be done. Sugar was transformed into the common enemy in a revived 'war on obesity' levelled at...

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the city of San Francisco waged a war against the homeless. This book treats the conflict between the city and activists as a unique opportunity to examine the contested nature of homelessness and public space while...

The book reports on a major research project on changes in dining out in three cities in England and systematically compares popular practice in 1995 and 2015. Differences in taste and behaviour surrounding eating in restaurants and as guests of friends...

The story of starting and running an organic farm-told by the woman who owned one of the first Community-Supported Agriculture operations in the Upper Midwest On a twenty-acre farm in Iowa in 1995, Angela Tedesco planted the seeds (quite literally) of a...

Practical Guidelines to Resourceful City Living, Self-reliance, Emergency Preparedness, and Getting More for LessA survival guidebook that reflects the world in which we now find ourselves. The post 9/11 world seems a bit more hostile, as terrorist...

As the world's billionaire class reaps record profits and global inequalities further divide nations and communities, this anthology compiled by renown activist Dr. Vandana Shiva pulls back the curtain on how ruthless capitalistic exploitation branded as...

This issue of Plough Quarterly explores our relationship with the natural world. Hear from leading scientists, farmers, writers, activists, theologians, and artists who have set their hearts and minds and hands to caring for the earth for generations to...

An essential primer from one of North America's largest urban farms. Urban farming has the power to change diets, economies, and lives. Yet starting an urban farm can seem daunting with skills and knowledge that extend beyond growing to include...

The updated bestselling guide to laid-back beekeeping for all, naturally! Are you a beginner beekeeper curious about bees or a practicing beekeeper looking for natural alternatives that work? Then this book is for you! In the second edition of the...

As the world's second most popular beverage after water, tea has fascinated, awakened, motivated, and calmed us for well over two thousand years.A History of Tea tells the compelling story of the rise of tea in Asia and its eventual spread to the West...