Eating the Empire: Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain

by Troy Bickham

When students gathered in a London coffeehouse and smoked tobacco; when Yorkshire women sipped sugar-infused tea; or when a Glasgow family ate a bowl of Indian curry, were they aware of the mechanisms of imperial rule and trade that made such goods readily available? In Eating the Empire, Troy Bickham unfolds the extraordinary role that food played in shaping Britain during the long eighteenth century (circa 1660–1837), when such foreign goods as coffee, tea, and sugar went from rare luxuries to some of the most ubiquitous commodities in Britain—reaching even the poorest and remotest of households. Bickham reveals how trade in the empire’s edibles underpinned the emerging consumer economy, fomenting the rise of modern retailing, visual advertising, and consumer credit, and, via taxes, financed the military and civil bureaucracy that secured, governed, and spread the British Empire.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction, Food History, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2020

About the author

Troy Bickham is professor of history at Texas A & M University.

Reviews

[Serenity · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are no reviews of this book yet, so I am taking a stab at it.

Summary:
The book explores how food, society and empire interacted in Britain during the 18th century. It is not really food history in that it is not a biography of coffee. There are enough of those already. Instead it narrates and argues for the importance of food in how people understood the empire and how the empire affected the daily lives of the people who stayed in Britain. The author makes a powerful and persuasive case both for the usefulness of food as a way to understand people's relationships with their worlds generally and, more important, how much and deeply the empire affected peoples lives in Britain.

What I liked:
The author is an academic, but he has a style (at least in this book) that is readable and engaging for a wide audience. It almost feels as if someone is reading it aloud and telling a story while explaining something important. He spins a good yarn but also includes relevant figures and great anecdotes. I especially liked how he explained the figures with context rather than listing a bunch of meaningless numbers. Also, the book is packed full of illustration, and not the usual portraits of people no one ever saw. Instead, the author includes a range of images from popular print cultures, such as advertising, cookbooks and political prints. The chapters are thematic what made the book easy to read, leave and pick up again. The chapter on advertising is pure brilliance. Who would have thought ads for tobacco would have features African slaves!

What I didn't like:
Not much. I wish there were color illustrations. I am not one for lots of figures but a couple of charts or info-grams explaining the trades would have helped. The author is great about explaining what the numbers mean, but I am a visual person. Others might be, too. The chapter on food and politics drags a little, but the section on women organizing boycotts of sugar and forcing sellers to advertise free-labor sugar was fascinating.

Final conclusion:
This is an engaging book anyone interested in the subjects of food history or British history should read. Makes a great case for the importance of empire and people's participation in it.

[Carter Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally this sort of topic is not my cup of tea (forgive the pun). I read and enjoyed the author's previous book on the War of 1812, and I recently read and enjoyed Mark Kurlansky's surprisingly interesting biography of salt. I have glad I made the effort. Bickham's book is less about culinary history (there is some, including chapters on how early women authors created the modern cookbook and shaped British cuisine as purposely plain) and more about how foreign goods shaped Britain's society and economy. Because everyone ate, eating is a great way to understand wider social history. As before, Bickham writes fluidly, informatively and engagingly. Plenty of illustrations, which enhance the book.

[Alcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book I wanted to read--loved the title and concept--but I was not convinced I would like it, so I embarked with some reluctance. I loved it. One of the best books on food history/culture I have read. Yes, it's written by an academic, but the author's prose is engaging, informative and even witty at times. It is not written with the usual academic intention to obfuscate as means of setting up the author as the grand and necessary interpreter. Instead, the author takes such complex dry subjects and regional small-shop supply chains and bankruptcy records and makes them both discernible and interesting in his telling of how and why food mattered to Britain and the world it was shaping. The book is full of illustrations, which are necessary for such a visual subject as food.

I especially like the chapter on the empowerment of women as consumers and how they used that discovered power to boycott sugar and oppose slavery.

[MerryMac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little on the academic side but still a real delight to read.

[Leon Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a refreshing addition (or counter) to the steady flow of titles that whimsically focus on what Jane Austen or some other elite figure ate or the biography of a single food. Accessibly written (but still serious in analysis and argument), the book is a study of how the British shaped the world through their imperialism and how the world, in turn, shaped them through the routine and mundane practices of eating. Probably still interesting to foodies (because it is so accessibly written), and definitely worth reading for those interested in Britain and its empire.

[Olav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, entertaining and engaging. Full of interesting tidbits as well as making a case for how important the empire was in shaping British culture.

[Evi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was featured last weekend in the Danish newspaper Politiken. For those who can read Dansk! The reviewer described it as surprisingly relevant to today's troubles with corona and Brexit. I agree. This could not have been the author's intention but his account of the globalization of food is very relevant indeed. It is a very good book.

[Ari Arizona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my usual history read but still enjoyable and informative.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I read during the latest lock-down. It is a mesmerizing history of Britain and how its peoples engaged with imperialism, from Chinese images in advertisements for tea to women boycotting sugar to oppose slavery. Chapters are thematic rather than narrative, so it is easy to pick up and put down.

While written by an academic, it is easily digestible (pun intended!) for the casual reader. Why can't more academics write like this? Lots of illustrations.