Food History

Simone Cinotto is Full Professor of Modern History at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy. His publications include The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City (2014), Global Jewish Foodways: A History (2018), Food Mobilities: Making World Cuisines (2023), and Gastrofascism and Empire: Food in Italian East Africa, 1935–1941 (2024).Gabriele Proglio is Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy. His publications include The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship (2021); The Horn of Africa Diasporas in Italy: An Oral History (2020); The Mobility of Memory: Migrations and Diasporas across Europe and Beyond (2020).

“More than a history of food, this book uses food to illuminate history itself. Ranging across time and space, it connects eating to production, economy, politics, and cultural meaning, while integrating the field’s central debates. A rigorous yet accessible and compelling work.”Professor Massimo Montanari, University of Bologna, Italy“A smart, digestible, clearly written guide for anyone who has ever wondered why we eat the way we do. The authors dish up the perfect introductory text with examples from around the world to show students and curious readers alike that food is a crucial lens for understanding our complex past and imagining our shared future.”Professor Michelle King, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill“Insightful, comprehensive and fascinating. The book is global in the best senses, showing the interconnectedness of food tastes as well as incorporating many countries into its description of modern innovations and food justice movements. The reader will find more than just an introduction to food history and culture but a sense of how we got here and the range of human appetites.”Professor Paul Freedman, Yale University“Food as a fait social total is masterly approached in this book that addresses the long-term world history of eating, with emphasis on the modern period. It is essential for understanding the way how we now eat and think about food.”Professor Peter Scholliers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium“As a discipline Food Studies has been disadvantaged by its lack of a true “home” within the walls of the traditional university. The coherence, breadth, and depth of this text make it an invaluable critical companion; it’s delightful readability and admirably inclusive perspective make it feel like it could be the cornerstone we’ve been missing.”Professor Danielle Callegari, Dartmouth College"From the origins of agriculture to contemporary global gastronomies, Cinotto and Proglio draw on exceptional scholarship to demonstrate the centrality of food. Compelling and thought-provoking, this book shows how food plays a major role not only in migration, war, state formation, and markets, but also culture, human development, and pleasure."Professor Amy Bentley, New York University

• Introduction 1. The Cuisine of Prehistory and the Great Ancient and Medieval Civilizations 2. 1492: The Columbian Exchange 3. 1619: The Plantation System and the Deterritorialization of Food from the Atlantic to the Pacific 4. Food from the Feudal System to the Market, 1500–1850 5. New Gastronomies: The Birth of Modern Taste, 1500–1850 6. Food Industrialization, 1850–1930 7. Food, Empires, and Diasporas between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1789–1914 8. Food, State, and Nation from World War I to the Cold War, 1914–1950 9. The Green Revolution: From Miracle Rice to GMOs, 1950–2000 10. Planet McDonald's: The Cuisine of Large Multinationals and Neoliberalism, 1980–2000 11. Social Movements for Food, 1965–2001 12. Wars and Hunger: Food as a Weapon and as a Humanitarian Tool, 1991–2025 13. World Gastronomies, 2000-2025 Bibliography