Alejandro Colás is a Reader in International Relations at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is Director of the postgraduate program on International Security and Global Governance. He is the author of Empire and International Civil Society.  Jason Edwards is a Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is Program Director of the MSc in Social and Political Theory. He is the author of The Radical Attitude and Modern Political Theory and the editor of Retrieving the Big Society.  Jane Levi is a Visiting Research Fellow in History at King’s College, London, and is King’s Mount Vernon Fellow 2017–18. She has contributed to numerous scholarly volumes on food including the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets and the Sage Encyclopedia of Food Issues.  Sami Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is a Fellow of Birkbeck College, Research Associate of the London Middle East Institute, and Professorial Research Associate of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS. His books include Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East and A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East.

"[A] well‐researched and well‐written piece of work, worthy of being used both in teaching and as an inspiration for future research projects."

• Preface and Acknowledgments vii1. Introduction: Food, Drink, and Modern Social Theory 12. The Natural and the Social: The Agricultural Revolution 213. Exchange: The Columbian Exchange and Mercantile Empires 404. Culture: Ritual, Prohibition, and Taboo 585. Industrialization: Technology, Rationality, and Urbanization 766. The Public Sphere: Eating and Drinking in Public 947. The Modern State: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Biopolitics 1128. Identity: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Religion 1309. Distinction: Social Diff erence, Taste, and the Civilizing Process 15010. Political Economy: The Global Food System 16911. The Self: Food Choices and Public Health 18712. Consumption: Media, the Domestic Economy, and Celebrity Chefs 206Notes 223Select Bibliography 257Index 265