Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People

Why did the ancient Romans believe cinnamon grew in swamps guarded by giant killer bats? How did the African cultures imported by slavery influence cooking in the American South? What does the 700-seat McDonald's in Beijing serve in the age of globalization? With the answers to these and many more such questions, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition presentsan engaging, informative, and witty narrative of the interactions among history, culture, and food.

From prehistory and the earliest societies around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to today's celebrity chefs, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition presents a multicultural and multiethnic approach that draws connections between major historical events and how and why these events affected and defined the culinary traditions of different societies. Fully revised and updated, this Second Edition offers new and expanded features and coverage, including:

• New Crossing Cultures sections providing brief sketches of foods and food customs moving between cultures
• More holiday histories, food fables, and food chronologies
• Discussions of food in the Byzantine, Portuguese, Turkish/Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires
• Greater coverage of the scientific genetic modification of food, from Mendel in the 19th century to the contemporary GM vs. organic food debate
• Speculation on the future of food
• And much more!

Complete with sample recipes and menus, as well as revealing photographs and illustrations, Cuisine and Culture, Second Edition is the essential survey history for students of food history.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

First Course.

From Rawto Cooked: PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT, CHINA, INDIA.

PREHISTORY.

THE ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.

THE FERTILE CRESCENT: THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS.

EGYPT: THE NILE RIVER.

CHINA: THE YELLOW (HUANG HE) RIVER.

INDIA: THE INDUS RIVER.

Second Course.

Grain, Grape, Olive: ANCIENT GREECE AND IMPERIAL ROME.

THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.

GREECE.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Third Course.

Crazy Bread, Coffee, and Courtly Manners: CHRISTENDOM, ISLAM, AND BYZANTIUM IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 500–1300.

CHRISTENDOM: THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES IN WESTERN EUROPE.

THE MUSLIM EMPIRE: BAGHDAD.

THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE: BYZANTIUM.

CULTURE CLASH: THE CRUSADES.

CHRISTENDOM: THE LATE MIDDLE AGES IN EUROPE.

Fourth Course.

Tea, Chocolate, and the First Cookbook: MEDIEVAL ASIA, THE AMERICAS, AND RENAISSANCE EUROPE TO 1500.

ASIA.

EUROPE.

THE AMERICAN EMPIRES.

COLUMBUS SETS SAIL FOR THE AMERICAS: 1492.

Fifth Course.

The Columbian Exchange and the Protestant Reformation: SUGAR AND VICE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

OLD WORLD TO NEW.

NEW WORLD TO OLD.

JAPAN.

EUROPE.

Sixth Course.

Thanksgiving, Hutspot, and Haute Cuisine: SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA, THE NETHERLANDS, RUSSIA, FRANCE.

COLONIAL AMERICA.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE NETHERLANDS.

THE RUSSIAN BEAR.

FRANCE.

Seventh Course.

Election Cake and "Let Them Eat Cake": THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH

REVOLUTIONS—THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

AMERICA: FROM COLONY TO COUNTRY.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: "LET THEM EAT CAKE."

THE NAPOLEONIC ERA: 1799–1815.

NAPOLEON’S AFTERMATH.

Eighth Course.

From Coyotes to Coca-Cola: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN AMERICA.

"GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!"

THE SOUTH.

THE CIVIL WAR—1850–1865.

RECONSTRUCTION—1865–1877.

THE WEST: THE RAILROAD AND THE INDIAN WARS—1860s–1886.

THE GILDED AGE.

NINETEENTH-CENTURY HEALTH FOOD MOVEMENTS.

Ninth Course.

Sanitation, Nutrition, Colonization: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA.

GERMS AND GENES.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

AFRICA ENSLAVED: WORKING FOR PEANUTS.

INIDA: "THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN."

CHINA: TEA AND OPIUM.

EASTERN EUROPE.

ITALY: UNIFIED COUNTRY, REGIONAL CUISINE.

Tenth Course.

The Purity Crusade, Cuisine Classique, and Communal Food: THE EARLY

TWENTIETH CENTURY IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES.

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS AND THE MELTING POT.

PROGRESSIVES AND THE PURITY CRUSADE.

DINING DE LUXE IN THE BELLE EPOQUE.

WORLD WAR I AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

Eleventh Course.

Prohibition, Soup Kitchens, Spam, and TV Dinners: THE ROARING TWENTIES, THE DEPRESSION, WORLD WAR II, AND THE COLD WAR.

THE ROARING TWENTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL.

WORLD WAR II.

POST-WORLD WAR II AND THE COLD WAR.

THE FAST-FOOD FIFTIES.

Twelfth Course.

Revolutions in Cuisines and Cultures: FROM "BON APPÉTIT" TO "BAM!" THE 1960S INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

THE SIXTIES: REVOLUTIONS IN COLOR.

THE SEVENTIES: FOOD REVOLUTIONS.

THE EIGHTIES: POLITICAL AND RESTAURANT REVOLUTIONS.

THE NINETIES: THE RISE OF THE CELEBRITY CHEF.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND THE FUTURE OF FOOD.

APPENDIX A: FRENCH PRONUNCIATION.

APPENDIX B: ITALIAN PRONUNCIATION.

APPENDIX C: MAJOR WARS AND BATTLES (NOT ANCIENT).

APPENDIX D: SELECTED COOKBOOK AND FOOD BOOKS CHRONOLOGY.

NOTES.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.

INDEX.