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The Oxford Handbook of Food History / ed. Jeffrey Pilcher
Review Date: 29 August 2013
The field of food studies has gained significant traction over the previous two decades. Across a range of disciplines, from religious studies to anthropology to history, among others, a growing body of books, articles, and conference papers has explored the history of particular foods. This scholarship has also begun analyzing foodways, meaning how a society understands the practice of eating and imbues meals with cultural meanings.
Eating the Enlightenment: Food and the Sciences in Paris, 1670-1760 / Emma Spary
Review Date: 27 June 2013
Over 40 years ago, Robert Darnton proposed to evaluate the Enlightenment from its authors’ perspectives. After all, he observed, they were ‘men of flesh and blood, who wanted to fill their bellies, house their families, and make their way in the world’.