Fifty Foods That Changed the Course of History

Fifty Things That Changed the Course of History

by Bill Price

A beautifully presented guide to the foods that have had the greatest impact on human civilization. Though many of the foods in this book are taken for granted and one (the mammoth) is no longer consumed, these foods have kept humans alive for millennia and theirs is a fascinating story. Like the other titles in this highly-regarded series, this book organizes the fifty foods into short illustrated chapters of fascinating the "who, where, when, why and how" of each food's introduction and its impact on civilization in one or more cultural, social, commercial, political or military spheres. These stories span human history, from our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the transatlantic slave trade, from the introduction of frozen foods, prohibition and the rise of the Mafia, to the powdered milk scandal in China. Another example is golden rice, the first genetically modified food developed for the good of humanity rather than solely for profit. Most of the foods are familiar and their importance obvious, such as bread, sugar, wine, potato, beef and rice. Others are far less obvious. The fifty foods Fifty Foods That Changed the Course of History is an informative and entertaining look at how what we eat has made us who we are.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Food, Science, Cooking, Pop Culture

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Bill Price is originally from Herefordshire and now lives in North West London. After working in various areas of the UK book trade for fifteen years, he become a full time freelance writer and is now the author of ten books. Most of these have reflected his interest in the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, in particular, the First World War.

Reviews

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This book was okay but could have been so much better. I'm not unfamiliar with food history and always enjoy learning more. I enjoy a quick survey at times but this was just a bit too thrown together for me.
This book seemed cobbled together from a bunch of disparate ideas. The writing was sometimes tedious in detail like that history book in school that made you hate the Reformation.And of course when you limit yourself to 50 items out of thousands it's a tiny slice. Some of the author's choices are not what I would have chosen.

Some of the foods chosen seemed rather distantly related to the history and events chosen. Some were very specific to a region or event which was interesting but to me, hardly changing the course of history.
Some articles did have a certain breadth such as the ones on sugar and bread
Others seemed to focus on one historic event when the food had more far reaching impact. For example, Starbuck's coffee which is more about the brand and its impact, one piece of the history of coffee. The impact of Starbucks is evident but to me it would have been more successful to connect that with more of the early history of coffee and how it became a world wide beverage.


While this was an okay read, there are other books that are more comprehensive.
I recommend The Oxford Companion to Food, The Oxford Book of Food Plants; The History of Food by Reay Tannahill and there are so many more.

[Lisa Shafer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book stretches itself too far.
It's quite interesting, but the author tries too hard to include every culture instead of focusing on foods that actually changed history.
He does include some foods that truly affected the course of history, such as the potato, corn, and lamb. But mostly he ties foods into historical events or time periods, such as Anzac biscuits and hot dogs.
So, if you want to read short articles about foods placed in their historical contexts, this is the book for you. But if you actually want to read about foods that changed the course of history, you'll need to dig deeper than this book.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting non fiction text book style book that is both a history of the world and a history of how our foods altered the course of events worldwide. It can be a bit dry at points but when proceeding to the next chapter the book redeems itself with interesting nuggets of information. I'm a better educated person as a result and better informed about foods available here and in other parts of the world.

[Libby Beyreis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish.

So for starters, a better title for this book would be, "A Handful of Foods that Changed the Course of History - Plus 40 More That Happened To Be Around When History Was Made".

Secondly, the sections rarely if ever gave any insight into HOW the foods had changed history. More often than not, most if not all of each section was about some vaguely related history and made little or no reference to the food or it's (supposed) impact.

But what really killed this book for me were the absolute howlers, the broad statements that were just flat out wrong, obviously wrong to anyone who had given even a little bit of thought to history. The line that made me toss the book aside was something to the effect of "humans have been freezing food to preserve it for centuries"... What? Are you HIGH? Humans in cold weather have been freezing food to preserve it for MILLENNIA.

Do not read this book to learn about history OR food. I'm not even a historian and I caught it in multiple errors. This book felt like somebody had an idea (or more likely, an assignment), came up with a few foods that were obvious gimmies, then spent an afternoon on wikipedia and pounded this thing out.

[Kenzie Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was surprisingly good. I had taken a class on food through history and food this a good way to connect some of the dots and learn a little more about some subjects that we had run out of time to discuss in class. I would recommend reading it, or at least skimming through to your favorites, as it provides some interesting lore and actual history that is very interesting. Stuff such as the history of Anzac Biscuits, how Indonesia cultural norms helped spread food, and such are all interesting topics. Sorted nice and neat, these are easy to read and provide a good overall summary of how food, or a specific time of it, plays a large role in how it is perceived today.

[Ashley Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lover of food history I was excited to read this book, but finished it feeling very underwhelmed. It felt thrown together and very cut down for what it could have been. It also seemed to take into account mostly mainstream or well known examples for each food while leaving the true histories and fascinating stories out. If you need a quick overview of some food history it might be useful, but don’t expect more than cliff notes.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch ist in Ordnung, um einen groben Überblick über die Bedeutung von Essen in der Geschichte zu bekommen. Allerdings fand ich die verschiedenen Lebensmittel relativ wahllos ausgewählt und lieblos geschrieben. Mehr als ein paar geschichtliche Fakten kann man von diesem Buch nicht erwarten.

Und das ist doch recht enttäuschend, wenn man sich bewusst macht, welche geschichtliche Bedeutung allein der Zucker für unsere Welt hatte. Statt solcher Zusammenfassungen bevorzuge ich eher tiefergehende Bücher wie "Die süße Macht: Kulturgeschichte des Zuckers". Die Rückschlüsse, welche Sidney W. Mintz darin zieht, sind wirklich erstaunlich!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Briefly discusses that origins and impacts of 50 foods, dating from ancient to modern times.

This provided a nice, brief overview of 50 different foods. It felt like it was very white centered in a lot of the foods that it chose to highlight. While it was interesting, I wish that it would have gone more in depth instead of just highlights. The quality of writing varied widely between different foods and some food were expanded upon a lot more than others. Editing could have been tightened up- there were several spelling and grammatical errors. 3.5 rounded down.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts about foods, many which we enjoy often. Foods from Bread to Rice and many in between are given a brief history and how they affect our world now and in the past. It is a good book to pick up and read for a short period of time. I learned many interesting things about food and how it has changed over the centuries.

[Bethany Waite · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book was a bit all over the place. Some food sections were very quick reads which could have been expanded more while others where very detailed about accounts about some historical event and then ended with and this food was probably eaten there.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fascinating topic. But I was left wanting with this book. It either was too superficial or not what I was expecting with the information and how it was written. I feel that its definitely written from a historical bent and I wanted more food details and just more overall.

[Courtney B · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a really quick read, which was nice. Some of the histories didn't exactly explain the food, but it was still extremely interesting and helped me find future topics to read about.

[Blythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting content. Sloppy writing

[Leon Bhagawanta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history about every food is short and detailed but at the same time it's a bit boring and some of the foods in the books seems to random.

[Bella · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was a very boring book very educational but i had to read it for school, i would not want to read this book on my own time though

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

50 this and 50 that. It's become an overused meme, as this guy shows. All in all, a disappointing book about food history, but not a bad overview of some oddities and details of history. The chapter on tea becomes an overview of the conditions in China that led to the Opium Wars. Corn is the occasion for considering industrial agriculture and the problems of having everything contain corn syrup. Potatoes of course is a short history of the colonial arrogance of the British in Ireland that led to the avoidable hardships of the potato famine. Golden rice is a short consideration of the potential benefits of genetically modifying food organisms, and a glance at the potential problems.
Read as bedtime reading, and perfect for that: two- and four-page essays, wells written and sometimes surprising in the way the topic flows.
I 'll remember the format, which was a bit of a bait and switch, but in a good way. All in all an interesting enough way to meander through history with a slender thread.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While sometimes light on facts and heavy on opinion and fluff for such a survey-level mainstream book, Fifty Foods that Changed the Course of History is full of interesting historical tid-bits and mostly provides illumination as to how the chosen foods affected the past. The links the author makes between food and effect on history are sometimes highly-debatable and even arbitrary, but usually there is a valid and entertaining story to be had. The chapters on 'Spice,' 'Sugar,' and 'Tea' are, thankfully, some of the strongest presented, and the chapter on 'Powdered Sugar' was particularly enlightening for me in terms of NAFTA ramifications.

As a sidenote, the book itself was sturdily-bound, with one of those built in cloth bookmarks which I feel are underrated, but the paper colour left to be desired and caused me some squinting and focus issues.

True Rating: 3.4 Stars

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had me torn. On one hand it gives a nice overview of food and drink and how they have influenced history. On the other hand the writing sometimes tries to be too cheeky, the author spends pages on some items (being very inclined towards USA and England) and completely skips over others . I read a translation of it and the translator? editor? someone had included bits about my country without differentiating it from the original text, which drove me nuts. Often Price went to lengthy rambles about history that had nothing to do with the food item itself.
That aside I read the whole thing and bought it as a present for my mother.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I read this book, because it contain some interesting facts about food history (I found it very similar to A History of the World in 100 Objects) but at times it was a little dry and hard to get through.

[Dan Meier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting informative book, but the set up was a little too junior-high textbook like.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of coffee table book.

[Jonathan Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already found one glaring mistake... The burger was an invention of ancient Rome, not modern America (lookup "Isicia Omentatum" in the recipe book of Apicius). Otherwise, a very interesting book.

[Kevin]

Currently at page 184 (Jaffa Orange)

[Nefertari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but I've seen a lot of other food history books do this so much better. There are long diatribes on the politics and history of the day, and little exploration of the customs, culture, and effect that this particular food has on humans. Kind of a slog, to be honest.