Fifty Foods that Changed the Course of History

From the obvious selections such as bread to obscure and no longer eaten items such as Spartan Black Broth, Price (Charles Darwin: Origins and Arguments) takes the reader on a trip through history and around the world as he explores the foods that shaped the world around us. The book begins at the very beginning with speculation that human ancestors may have pit roasted woolly mammoth and works its way forward to the foods that are shaping our society today, such as the genetically modified golden rice developed to address vitamin A deficiency in millions of people in Southeast Asia and Africa. For every food item that is listed, a brief history is provided, explaining how that item came to become such an integral part of cuisine, why it developed, how it evolved, and how it influenced and effected the course of our history. Food plays such a large role in our lives, but seldom do we think about where it came from. In this book, Price illuminates ways that food choices all over the world have actually shaped human history. Readers are bound to look at food with a new appreciation. (Aug.)