Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food

In this "appetizingly provocative" (Los Angeles Times) book, he guides readers through the eight great revolutions in the world 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 inception of herding and the invention of agriculture, perhaps the two greatest revolutions of all; the rise of inequality, which led to the development of haute cuisine; the long-range trade in food which, practically alone, broke down cultural barriers; the ecological exchanges, which revolutionized the global distribution of plants and livestock; and, finally, the industrialization and globalization of mass-produced food.

From prehistoric snail "herding" to Roman banquets to Big Macs to genetically modified tomatoes, Near a Thousand Tables is a full-course meal of extraordinary narrative, brilliant insight, and fascinating explorations that will satisfy the hungriest of readers.

Preface

One

The Invention of Cooking

The First Revolution

Two

The Meaning of Eating

Food as Rite and Magic

Three

Breeding to Eat

The Herding Revolution: From "Collecting" Food to "Producing" It

Four

The Edible Earth

Managing Plant Life for Food

Five

Food and Rank

Inequality and the Rise of Haute Cuisine

Six

The Edible Horizon

Food and the Long-Range Exchange of Culture

Seven

Challenging Evolution

Food and Ecological Exchange

Eight

Feeding the Giants

Food and Industrialization in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Notes

Index