An Edible History of Humanity [Paperback]

The bestselling author ofA History of the World in 6 Glassescharts the enlightening history of humanity through the foods we eat.

More than simply sustenance, food historically has been a kind of technology, changing the course of human progress by helping to build empires, promote industrialization, and decide the outcomes of wars. Tom Standage draws on archaeology, anthropology, and economics to reveal how food has helped shape and transform societies around the world, from the emergence of farming in China by 7500 b.c. to the use of sugar cane and corn to make ethanol today.An Edible History of Humanityis a fully satisfying account of human history.

Standage succeeds in underscoring the crucial role that food continues to play in our lives. -Washington Post

The emphasis on food as a cultural catalyst differentiates Standage from Michael Pollan. With Standage...it's not just one food lifting and guiding history, but what Adam Smith might have called the invisible fork of food economics. -New Scientist

Standage's examples are pretty powerful: In his view of the world, the British lost the Revolutionary War in large part because they failed to provide adequate food for their troops; the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 because the regime could not feed its people; and the reason we say someone is a family's breadwinner is because of food's practically ancient association with wealth. -Gourmet

An extraordinary and well-told story, a much neglected dimension of history. -Financial Times

Cogent, informative and insightful. An intense briefing on the making of our world from the vantage point of food history. -Kirkus

Tom Standage is business editor atThe Economistmagazine and the author of four works of history,lÓà