The bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses brilliantly charts how foods have transformed human culture through the ages. Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes—caused, enabled, or influenced by food—has helped to shape and transform societies around the world. The first civilizations were built on barley and wheat in the Near East, millet and rice in Asia, corn and potatoes in the Americas. Why farming created a strictly ordered social hierarchy in contrast to the loose egalitarianism of hunter-gatherers is, as Tom Standage reveals, as interesting as the details of the complex cultures that emerged, eventually interconnected by commerce. Trade in exotic spices in particular spawned the age of exploration and the colonization of the New World. Food’s influence over the course of history has been just as prevalent in modern times. In the late eighteenth century, Britain’s solution to food shortages was to industrialize and import food rather than grow it. Food helped to determine the outcome of wars: Napoleon’s rise and fall was intimately connected with his ability to feed his vast armies. In the twentieth century, Communist leaders employed food as an ideological weapon, resulting in the death by starvation of millions in the S oviet Union and China. And today the foods we choose in the supermarket connect us to global debates about trade, development, the environment, and the adoption of new technologies. Encompassing many fields, from genetics and archaeology to anthropology and economics—and invoking food as a special form of technology—An Edible History of Humanity is a fully satisfying discourse on the sweep of human history.
An Edible History of Humanity
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“Earliest civilizations appeared on earth when farmers banded together and exploited their excess crops as a means of trade and currency. This allowed some people to abandon agriculture [leading to] organized communities and cities. Standage traces this ever-evolving story through Europe, Asia, and the Americas and casts human progress as an elaboration and refinement of this foundation…Standage also uncovers the aspects of food distribution that underlay such historic events as the Napoleonic Wars and the fall of the Soviet empire.”—Booklist
“[Standage] shows how one of humanity’s most vital needs (hunger) didn't simply reflect but served as the driving force behind transformative and key events in history. … Perhaps the most interesting section is the final one, which looks at the ways in which modern agricultural needs have acted as a spur for technological advancement, with Standage providing a summary of the challenges still faced by the green revolution.”—Library Journal
“This meaty little volume… ‘concentrates specifically on the intersections between food history and world history.’ But history isn’t Standage’s only concern. He takes the long view to illuminate and contextualize such contemporary issues as genetically modified foods, the complex relationship between food and poverty, the local food movement, the politicization of food and the environmental outcomes of modern methods of agriculture… Cogent, informative and insightful.”—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Tom Standage is the business editor at the Economist and the author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses, The Victorian Internet, The Turk, and The Neptune File. He has written for Wired, the New York Times, and numerous magazines and newspapers. He lives in London, England. Visit his Web site at www.tomstandage.com.
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By Patrick Sullivan
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
This book attempts to explain the history of food and the effects on the human population. I rather enjoyed the story. Food is obviously an important aspect of every human society. Food also has an effect on warfare, politics, immigration, culture, and just about everything else.
Standage covers a lot of material, so things are kept fairly brief. Most readers will be familiar with most of the stories, but the addition details should help fill in the blanks.
I would recommend this book, to anyone that enjoys different aspects of human history.
Standage covers a lot of material, so things are kept fairly brief. Most readers will be familiar with most of the stories, but the addition details should help fill in the blanks.
I would recommend this book, to anyone that enjoys different aspects of human history.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Jennifer Der
Format:Paperback
This book was amazing. it is written from a perspective on how food changed us and how we have changed food since the "invention" of agriculture... it talks about societal influences since the advent of agriculture, nutritional impacts, and how it provided motivations for trading and exploration throughout history. this is not a book about a certain food in particular but how certain foods have influenced the course of history. a must read for the history buff!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book title invites you to believe that "World History" will be discussed, with food as the theme. It would be good to have a continuous theme, and a better thought-out notion, any notion, of the course of history. Yes, it is true that food is necessary if people are going to act, but to contend that without food, things wouldn't have happened, and there's the role that food played, sheds little light on either history or food. Leaving out well-known, entertaining intelligent theses, for example that proposed by Carter and Dale in "Topsoil and Civilization", indicates the level of research. I conclude that the book is the hurried follow up to a financially successful book.
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