Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People, 3rd Edition

Acknowledgments xii

FIRST COURSE:
From Raw to Cooked: Prehistory, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India 1

Prehistory 1

The Ancient Agricultural Revolution 5

The Fertile Crescent 9

Egypt: The Nile River 13

China: The Yellow (Huang He) River 18

India: The Indus River 21

SECOND COURSE:
Grain, Grape, Olive: The Ancient Mediterranean 25

The Mediterranean Sea 25

Greece 26

Rome 38

THIRD COURSE:
Crazy Bread, Coff ee, and Courtly Manners: Christendom and Islam in the Middle Ages, 500–1453 58

Christendom: Western Europe, 500–1000 59

Byzantium: The Eastern Roman Empire 65

The Muslim Empire 67

Christendom: The Late Middle Ages in Europe 74

FOURTH COURSE:
New World Food: Potato, Corn, Chile, Chocolate 89

The Search for Spices 89

The American Empires 92

South America: The Inca Empire 93

Central America: Vanilla 101

Central America: Maya Mystery 103

Central America: The Aztec Empire 107

North America: Cahokia 116

Columbus Sets Sail for the Americas: 1492 116

FIFTH COURSE:
Food Goes Global: The Columbian Exchange 119

The Age of Exploration 119

The Columbian Exchange 120

Old World to New 121

New World to Old 136

SIXTH COURSE:
America from Colony to Country: Sacred Cod, Black Rice, Maple Moon, 1588–1850 151

The Mercantile System 151

Colonial America 152

A New People and a New Cuisine 167

SEVENTH COURSE:
Hutsepot, Stove Potatoes, and Haute Cuisine: Seventeenthto Eighteenth-Century Dutch, Russian, and French Cuisine 182

The Scientific Revolution 182

The Golden Age of the Netherlands 183

The Russian Bear 189

France: Haute and Nouvelle Cuisine 195

The French Revolution: "Let Them Eat Cake" 203

The Napoleonic Era: 1799–1815 207

Napoleon's Aftermath 215

EIGHTH COURSE:
Cattle, Coca-Cola, Cholera: The United States and Europe, 1850–1900 217

The American South 217

The American Civil War: 1850–1865 220

Reconstruction: 1865–1877 223

The West: Railroad and Indian Wars, 1860s–1886 225

The Gilded Age 231

Nineteenth-Century Health Food Movements 240

Europe: Nutrition, Sanitation, Evolution 244

NINTH COURSE:
Africa and Asia: Native vs. Colonial Cuisine 258

Food Patterns 258

Africa: Shea Butter, Kola Nuts, Monkey Bread 258

India: Not Just Curry and Chutney 266

China: Tea and Opium 274

Korea: Kimchee and Pulgogi 282

Vietnam: Spring Rolls and Pâté 283

Indonesia: The Spice Islands 283

The Philippines: Chinese-Spanish Fusion 285

Thailand (Siam): Lemongrass and Jasmine Rice 285

Japan: Tempura and Umami 287

TENTH COURSE:
The Purity Crusade, Cuisine Classique, and Prohibition: 1900–1929 in Europe and the United States 295

The New Immigrants and the Melting Pot 295

Progressives and the Purity Crusade 300

Escoffi er and Ritz: Cuisine Classique and the Grand Hotels 309

World War I and the Russian Revolution 316

The Roaring Twenties in the United States 323

ELEVENTH COURSE:
Soup Kitchens, Spam, and TV Dinners: The Depression, World War II, and the Cold War 334

The Depression and the New Deal 334

World War II 343

The Cold War 352

The Fast-Food Fifties 354

The Sixties: Revolutions in Color 359

TWELFTH COURSE:
Agribusiness vs. Organic: The 1970s into the Third Millennium 364

The Seventies: Food Revolutions 364

The Eighties: Political and Restaurant Revolutions 367

The Nineties: The Celebrity Chef 373

The New Millennium and the Future of Food 381

Appendix A: French Pronunciation 404

Appendix B: Italian Pronunciation 405

Appendix C: Major Wars and Battles 406

Appendix D: Selected Cookbook and Food Books Chronology 408

Notes 411

Selected Bibliography 424

Index 431