Food matters, not only as a subject of study in its own right, but also as a medium for conveying critical messages about capitalism, the environment, and social inequality to diverse audiences. Recent scholarship on the subject draws from both a pathbreaking body of secondary literature and an inexhaustible wealth of primary sources--from ancient Chinese philosophical tracts to McDonald's menus--contributing new perspectives to the historical study of food, culture, and society, and challenging the limits of history itself. The Oxford Handbook of Food History places existing works in historiographical context, crossing disciplinary, chronological, and geographic boundaries while also suggesting new routes for future research. The twenty-seven essays in this book are organized into five sections: historiography, disciplinary approaches, production, circulation, and consumption of food. The first two sections examine the foundations of food history, not only in relation to key developments in the discipline of history itself--such as the French Annales school and the cultural turn--but also in anthropology, sociology, geography, pedagogy, and the emerging Critical Nutrition Studies. The following three sections sketch various trajectories of food as it travels from farm to table, factory to eatery, nature to society. Each section balances material, cultural, and intellectual concerns, whether juxtaposing questions of agriculture and the environment with the notion of cookbooks as historical documents; early human migrations with modern culinary tourism; or religious customs with social activism. In its vast, interdisciplinary scope, this handbook brings students and scholars an authoritative guide to a field with fresh insights into one of the most fundamental human concerns.

IntroductionJeffrey M. PilcherPart I. Food Histories1. Food and the Annales School, Sydney Watts2. Political Histories of Food, Enrique Ochoa3. Cultural Histories of Food, Jeffrey M. Pilcher4. Labor Histories of Food, Tracey Deutsch5. Public Histories of Food, Rayna GreenPart II. Food Studies6. Gendering Food, Carole Counihan7. Anthropology of Food, R. Kenji Tierney and Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney8. Sociology of Food, Sierra Burnett Clark and Krishnendu Ray9. Geography of Food, Bertie Mandelblatt10. Critical Nutrition Studies, Charlotte Biltekoff11. Teaching with Food, Jonathan Deutsch and Jeffrey MillerPart III. The Means of Production12. Agricultural Production and Environmental History, Sterling Evans13. Cookbooks as Historical Documents, Ken Albala14. Empires of Food, Jayeeta Sharma15. Industrial Food, Gabriella M. Petrick16. Fast Food, Steve PenfoldPart IV. The Circulation of Food17. Food, Mobility, and World History, Donna R. Gabaccia18. The Medieval Spice Trade, Paul Freedman19. The Columbian Exchange, Rebecca Earle20. Food, Time, and History, Elias Mandala21. Food Regimes, Andr? Magnan22. Culinary Tourism, Lucy M. LongPart V. Communities of Consumption23. Food and Religion, Corrie E. Norman24. Food, Race, and Ethnicity, Yong Chen25. National Cuisines, Alison K. Smith26. Food and Ethical Consumption, Rachel Ankeny27. Food and Social Movements, Warren Belasco