An Edible History of Humanity

By: Tom Standage

Narrated by: George K. Wilson

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes---caused, enabled, or influenced by food---has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.

©2009 Tom Standage (P)2009 Tantor

Interesting, not really memorable

Any additional comments?

I came into this after finishing A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage, and while he presents some interesting points about the impact of food on history, it isn't as catchy or memorable as the first book.

Amazing summary of historical events and food

What did you love best about An Edible History of Humanity?

The way it was written was both chronological and topical. Incredibly well written and the narrator makes it come to life!

What was one of the most memorable moments of An Edible History of Humanity?

Christopher Columbus was such a crazy failure....I imagine his convincing the royalty in Spain to look like a Court Jester trying to get tips!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

What's Food got to do with it? - Humanity is not possible without the greed of food and flavor

Any additional comments?

One of my top 5 food and history books!

Narrator is boring

Struggled to pay attention. I restarted it a few times. Eventually I had to give up.

Needs updating

Newer research into human anthropology has made some of this info obsolete. It needs updating. Also, the audio quality was spotty: the volume would drastically drop for no reason for a few minutes, then raise again. But interesting overall, if slow-paced.

Not as good as "6 Glasses" but fascinating

Any additional comments?

Excellent book on the subject for those interested. I didn't find the info presented as interesting or well organized as his "A History of the World in 6 Glasses," but I still enjoyed the book thoroughly. For those of you who are reading this as a first by the author, definitely get "Glasses" first.

The reading by Wilson was excellent, as he always is. (If you like his voice, he was amazing for Citizen Soldiers, which is best in the Unabridged version.

If you happen to like the subject of the history of food, like me, one book I can totally recommend is "Salt: A World History," by Mark Kurlansky. It's a bit long and detailed, but I loved that about the book and the whole history was fascinating. It was also well read by Scott Brick, who has a great reading voice.

Great book

Interesting and informative, just as good as the history of the world in 6 glasses.

I thought the content was very interesting

I found the content very interesting and eye opening. The narration was not particularly captivating.

A big heaping feast of history

An Edible History is a wide world history of food, agriculture, and society. Standage, who wrote the wonderful book "The Victorian Internet" about the rise and role of the telegraph, writes even more comprehensively about food and it's role in history. It's rich with detail and yet paints a broad picture of food, economics, and science across thousands of years and the entire globe. The audio production is crisp, even with the occasional strangely acted-accented quotation.

A high quality, well written work translated effectively for the audio format.

Flawed, but still worth a read

This book lacks the intellectual brilliance of Michael Pollan's work, and the reader is slow and ponderous. Still, there are a number of interesting historical perspectives on the history of food.

Very concise and simple

I am a big fan of world history books. Tom Standage is one of the best. I listened to the History of the world in Six Glasses first, which I also highly recommended. This is another first rate title, which I felt achieved its end in a lot fewer words than say, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It is along the same lines as some other books I endorse. 1491 and 1493. One of which I read and the other I listened to. If you have ever wondered where the food we take for granted came from this book traces the history of such things as potatoes, corn and rice in great detail. It compares today's computer driven science to the the science of food production in the previous centuries. He makes the point that half of us wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the breakthrough of fixing nitrogen from the air into the soil and further creating more efficient genetic hybrid dwarf plants to feed our ever increasing population. I found the fact that sugar can be produced on a small amount of land, even though it is labor intensive is probably a good reason for it's proliferation as a cheap additive to our burgeoning food supply. I discovered that rice can be grown in poor soil and never needs to be rotated like wheat or potatoes. No wonder we have so many people in Asia. I also found it interesting that most of the successful countries got that way by first securing their own food supply and then diversifying their economies into other areas. This was a great pleasure to listen to and my attention only flagged at a few points during this great book. Otherwise I would have given it five stars all the way. What could be more sacred than man's connection to food.