Food & Culture: Food & Society

The books and materials listed below explore some of the ways in which food and culture have intersected throughout history.

• Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by E.J.W. Barber
• Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems, and What We Can Do About It by Sarah Bowen, Joslyn Brenton, & Sinikka Elliott
• The Dutch and English East India Companies: Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia edited by Adam Clulow & Tristan Mostert et al
• The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple 
• The War Lords and the Gallipolli Disaster: How Globalized Trade Led Britain to Its Worst Defeat of World War I by Nicholas A. Lambert

Tracking Down Oral Histories

Are you interested in finding oral histories and more about food and society? You're in luck: people definitely talk about food. These resources can help you get started!

• Food and Agriculture - Individual Interviews from University of California Berkeley
• Oral histories of food production and consumption at the British Library includes selected digitized materials
• Southern Foodways Alliance includes oral histories and other resources
• Traditional Foodways of Native North America: Oral History of Native Food Revitalization 

Articles About Oral Histories

You may also be interested in some articles about food and oral history! While the articles below all pertain to food and oral histories, they are a long shot from the only ones available. 

• "Food to Remember: Culinary Practice and Disaporic Identity" by Razia Parveen

Not quite sure how to start your research into food insecurity, food deserts, and other issues of food security? You can start with some of these broad searches, then narrow down--by region, ethnicity, era, and so on. (You can also copy and paste these search strings into your favorite database.) Need help? That's what we're here for.

Researching Food Insecurity

• "family economics" and food in Academic Search Complete and Central Index 
• "family resource management" and food in Central Index
• "food desert" or "food scarcity" or "food apartheid" or "food insecurity" in Academic Search Complete 
• "food *security" in Academic Search Complete and Central Index
• "low income families" and food in Academic Search Complete and Central Index
• "Starvation -- history"
  • SXU catalog
  • i-Share
  • Central Index

Books About Food Insecurity 

• Famines in the SXU catalog and in i-Share
• Books pertaining to food insecurity 
• Food security as subject in the SXU book catalog 

Food and health are closely linked, and have been throughout history. These subject words, keyword searches, and materials can get you started in your quest to learn more.

Subject Headings & Starter Searches

• ((diet or food or nutrition) and health) NOT dietary in Central Index and Academic Search Complete
• ethnography and (food or diet or nutrition) in Central Index and Academic Search Complete

Primary Sources

Historical Dietary Guidance Digital Collection 

Whether it be cacao or coffee beans, meat or mushrooms, food requires the natural world to come into being--and large-scale food production, especially, can take a lot out of the environment. Start exploring the intersections of food and the natural world with these subject headings, starter searches, and more.

Subjects

• "Agriculture & the environment" 
• "Agricultural ecology" 
• "Agricultural landscape management"
• "Anthropogenic effects on nature"
• "Economic policy -- Environmental aspects" 
• "Land economics"

Starter Searches

• Agriculture and sustainability in Central Index and Academic Search Complete
• ("anthropogenic effects on nature" AND (food or agriculture)) in Central Index and Academic Search Complete