New Books in Food

Cooking Sections, "Waves Lost at Sea" (Spector Books, 2026)

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Waves Lost at Sea (Spector Books, 2026) traces the evolving practice of Cooking Sections, whose work spans visual arts, architecture, and ecology. S...

Mapping Out Food and Philosophy

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This episode introduces a special issue on food and philosophy. Robert T. Valgenti, of Gastronomica’s Editorial Collective, talks with Andrea Borgh...

Helen Goh, "Baking and the Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes" (Abrams, 2025)

26 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pastry chef, longtime collaborator with Yotam Ottolenghi, and practicing psychologist Helen Goh joins the New Books Network to discuss Baking and the...

Constance Bailey et al. "Get It While It's Hot: Gas Station, Roadside, and Convenience Cuisine in the U.S. South" (LSU Press, 2026)

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Get It While It’s Hot (LSU Press, 2026) is an innovative collection that examines an increasingly commonplace belief across the U.S. South—that s...

Kasey Jernigan, "Commod Bods: Embodied Heritage, Foodways, and Indigeneity" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

19 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The term "commod bod" is used with humor and affection. It also offers a critical way to describe bodies shaped by long-term reliance on U.S. federal ...

Mark A. Johnson, "American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon" (U Georgia Press, 2026)

17 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon (U Georgia Press, 2026), Dr. Mark A. Johnson asks (and answers) a seemingly simple question: How...

Rawlston Williams, "The Caribbean Cookbook" (Phaidon Press, 2026)

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An exploration of Caribbean cuisine and culinary history, featuring more than 380 authentic home cooking recipes from across the region Caribbean cuis...

Fermenting and Foraging: Resourcefulness in the Historical and Contemporary Kitchen

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today, techniques such as fermenting and foraging are increasingly appealing to those seeking to create economical, nourishing, waste-free meals. This...

Christian Henderson, "Monarchies of Extraction: The Gulf States in the Global Food System" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a region known for its export of oil, Monarchies of Extraction: The Gulf States in the Global Food System (Cambridge UP, 2026) explores how the ...

Chiang Mai 2015

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Gastronomica podcast returns to the air, bringing listeners new interviews with authors from the latest issues of Gastronomica: The Journal for...

Allan Greer, "Canada in the Age of Rum" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2026)

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Awash in a sea of rum describes the years between the 1670s and the 1830s in the colonies that would later become Canada. Millions of litres of the su...

Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese Food

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For many Ashkenazi Jews in the United States, Christmastime sparks memories of egg rolls and General Tso's chicken. How did the affinity for Chinese f...

Patricia B. O'Hara, "Food Chemistry in Small Bites: The Alchemist in the Kitchen" (U California Press, 2025)

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Food Chemistry in Small Bites takes readers on an up-close scientific journey through the transformation of food when meals are prepared. Organized i...

Karima Moyer-Nocchi, "The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America" (Columbia UP, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today, macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, a staple of weeknight dinners, family gatherings, and Soul Food restaurants. Humble though th...

Eurie Dahn, "Snack" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the hierarchy of foods, snacks are deemed trivial – perhaps even childish – especially in contrast to meals, which are seen as substantial and ...

Rebecca Sharpless, "People of the Wheat: Culture and Cultivation in North Texas" (U Texas Press, 2026)

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve ever wondered where your wheat flour is coming from, who is milling it (and how), or how it came to be such an important staple, then this...

Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Paul Poast, "Wheat at War: Allied Economic Cooperation in the Great War" (Oxford UP, 2025)

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The battlefields were not the only places that threatened death during World War I. As conflict raged on and supply lines tightened, the allied powers...

Boiling Point

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Every other movie seems to be touted as a “tour de force”--but Philip Barantini’s 2021 look at ninety minutes in the life of a chef and everyone...

Josh Milburn, "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" (Oxford UP, 2023)

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How would we eat if animals had rights? A standard assumption is that our food systems would be plant-based. But maybe we should reject this assumptio...

Good and Bad Palm Oil: Food Security, Paradigm Shift and Stakeholder Negotiations in Indonesia and the EU

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Entangled in a nexus of commerce, industry, food security, and environmental concerns, palm oil has become a prominent topic of controversy and debate...

Hanna Garth, "Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement" (U California Press, 2026)

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Food justice activists have worked to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities of color across the United States. Yet despite their b...

Digestive Belonging, Trans-Species Sensing & Care in America’s Dairyland

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we speak with Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Copenhagen, Katy Overstreet. Katy is coordinator f...

Bridget Salmon and Andrew Godley, "The Making of the Modern Supermarket: Self-Service Adoption in British Food Retailing, 1950-1975" (Oxford UP, 2025)

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What seems mundane today—walking into a supermarket, picking up goods, and paying at a checkout—was once a radical experiment. In our latest New B...

Gaoheng Zhang, "Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities" (Fordham UP, 2025)

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities (Fordham UP, 2025) by Dr. Gaoheng Zhang designs a novel analytical framework to a...

Hanna Garth, "Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement" (U California Press, 2026)

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Food justice activists have worked to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities of color across the United States. Yet despite their b...

Ishita Dey, "Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal" (Routledge, 2025)

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal (Routledge, 2025) by Ishita Dey is an ethnographic work on excess. Based on a decade-long fieldwork of a sin...

Patrick McGuigan and Carlos Yescas, "One Cheese to Rule Them All: In Search of the World's 100 Best Cheeses" (Murdoch Books, 2025)

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a Comté connoisseur or does your heart belong to Rogue River Blue? Can you tell your Brie from your Camembert? Can you name an award-winning ...

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, "Taco" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Taco (Bloomsbury, 2025) is a deep dive into the most iconic Mexican food from the perspective of a Mexico City native. In a narrative that moves from...

Ines Prodöhl, "Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900–1950" (Routledge, 2023)

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ines Prodöhl’s Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900-1950 (Routledge, 2023) is a history of how, why, and where the soy...

Q. Edward Wang, "Staple to Superfood: A Global History of the Sweet Potato" (Columbia UP, 2025)

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sweet potatoes were among the American crops Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe—where they were thought to be an aphrodisiac. In China, thi...

Anna Zeide, "US History in 15 Foods" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From whiskey in the American Revolution to Spam in WWII, food reveals a great deal about the society in which it exists. Selecting 15 foods that repre...

Sara Byala, "Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African" (Oxford UP, 2023)

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Travel to virtually any African country and you are likely to find a Coca-Cola, often a cold one at that. Bottled asks how this carbonated drink bec...

Thomas David DuBois, "China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

28 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of New Books Network, Laura Goldberg speaks with Thomas David DuBois, Professor at Beijing Normal University, about his book China in...

Andrea Maraschi and Francesca Tasca, "Food, Heresies, and Magical Boundaries in the Middle Ages (Amsterdam UP, 2024)

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Food, Heresies, and Magical Boundaries in the Middle Ages (Amsterdam UP, 2024) by Dr. Andrea Maraschi & Dr. Francesca Tasca, readers will find st...

Veronica House, "Local Organic: Food Rhetorics and Community Writing for Impact" (Utah State UP, 2025)

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a conversation with the inspiring Dr. Veronica House, whose book Local Organic: Food Rhetorics and Community Writing for Impac...

Rituparna Patgiri and Gurpinder Singh Lalli eds., "Food, Culture and Society in India: Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Perspectives" (Berghahn Books, 2025)

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring the entangled relationships between food, culture and society in India, this edited collection Food, Culture and Society in India: Socia...

Susan Weingarten, "Ancient Jewish Food in its Geographical and Cultural Contexts: What’s Cooking in the Talmuds?" (Taylor & Francis, 2025

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ancient Jewish Food in its Geographical and Cultural Contexts: What’s Cooking in the Talmuds? (Taylor & Francis, 2025) is the first in-depth...

Bradley J. Borougerdi, "Cannabis: A Global History" (Reaktion, 2025)

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bradley Borougerdi joins Jana Byars to talk about Cannabis: A Global History (Reaktion, 2025). An international cultural history of the multifuncti...

Anny Gaul, "Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato" (U California Press, 2025)

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

By the end of the twentieth century, the tomato—indigenous to the Americas—had become Egypt's top horticultural crop and a staple of Egyptian cuis...

Jenny Linford, "Repast: The Story of Food" (Thames & Hudson, 2025)

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our insatiable appetite for creativity in the kitchen – or around the open fire – is reflected in the fascinating array of objects explored in thi...

Pyet DeSpain, "Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking" (HarperOne, 2025)

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chef Pyet DeSpain joins the New Books Network to discuss her new cookbook, Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking ...

Dorie Greenspan, "Dorie's Anytime Cakes" (Harvest, 2025)

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beloved baker and five-time James Beard Award winner Dorie Greenspan joins the New Books Network to discuss her new cookbook, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes...

Jennifer Yip, "Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937-1945" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How did China’s Nationalists feed their armies during the long war against Japan? In her new book, Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in Chi...

Graeme Rigby, "Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring" (Hurst Publishers, 2025)

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring: Adventures with the King of Fishes (Hurst, 2025) by Graeme Rigby contains almost everything you didn’t know...

Gesine Bullock-Prado, "My Harvest Kitchen: 100+ Recipes to Savor the Seasons" (Countryman Press, 2025)

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beloved baker and author Gesine Bullock-Prado returns to the New Books Network to chat about her delicious new cookbook, My Harvest Kitchen, the high...

The Trip

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My Dinner with Andre (1981) is a film that uses the simple premise of two men sharing a meal as a vehicle for exploration of how we should live our l...

Tami Parr, "Goats in America: A Cultural History" (Oregon State UP, 2025)

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The humble goat has played a surprising and important role throughout the history of the United States. Despite this, goats are often overlooked by ma...

Teresa M. Mares and Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, "Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain" (U California Press, 2025)

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Food consumers are demanding a healthier and more sustainable food system. Yet labor is rarely part of the discussion. In Will Work for Food: Labor A...

Michael W. Twitty, "Recipes from the American South" (Phaidon Press, 2025)

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not reflect those of the New Books Network or its hosts. This episode contains some content that...

Andrea Freeman, "Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: America’s Politics of Food, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch" (Metropolitan Books, 2024)

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first and definitive history of the use of food in American law and politics as a weapon of conquest and control, a Fast Food Nation for the Black...

The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruit—especially apples. ...

David Singerman, "Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sugar is everywhere in the western diet, blamed for epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and other modern maladies. Our addiction to sweetness has a long a...

Maria Fedorova, "Seeds of Exchange: Soviets, Americans, and Cooperation in Agriculture, 1921–1935" (Northern Illinois UP, 2025)

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seeds of Exchange: Soviets, Americans, and Cooperation in Agriculture, 1921–1935 (Northern Illinois UP, 2025) examines the US and Soviet exchange ...

Susannah Fisher, "Sink Or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world needs to adapt to climate change – but how? What are the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community? Sink or S...

Eric T. Jennings, "Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean" (Yale UP, 2025)

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavorings—so valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early days—and yet it is everywher...

Devin Smart, "Preparing the Modern Meal: Urban Capitalism and Working-Class Food in Kenya's Port City" (Ohio UP, 2025)

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Preparing the Modern Meal: Urban Capitalism and Working-Class Food in Kenya's Port City (Ohio UP, 2025) is an urban history that connects town and c...

Stephen A. Harris, "50 Plants That Changed the World" (Bodleian Library, 2025)

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever stopped to think about how your morning cappuccino came to be? From the coffee bush that yielded the beans, to the grass for the cattle ...

Jessica B. Harris, "Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine" (Clarkson Potter, 2025)

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Discover the sweeping story of how Indigenous, European, and African traditions intertwined to form an entirely new cuisine, with over 90 recipes for ...

Cup Overflowing: How Christians Should Think about Wine

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows,” wrote King David in Psalm 23. The ov...

Brian Duff, "Restaurant" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the last few decades, restaurants and food culture have achieved extraordinary cultural presence. Chefs are heroes and thought leaders, well-execut...

Tom Wooldridge, "Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction" (Routledge, 2022)

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2022) presents an accessible introduction to the conceptualization and treatment of eating...

Anders M. Greene-Crow, "Austerity Measures: The Poetics of Food Insecurity in Early Modern English Literature" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025)

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My guest today is Anders M. Greene-Crow. Anders teaches at the Woods College of Advancing Studies and is a former Professor of English at Boston Colle...

Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers are Changing the World

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We all have the power to change the world through the products we buy. This simple premise has driven the growth of the conscious consumer movement fo...

Preserving Traditional Rice and Rice Culture in the Philippines

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the Philippines, rice serves as a fundamental component of the diet, typically accompanying most meals as either white or brown rice. It is also a ...

Yuki Kato, "Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City" (NYU Press, 2025)

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gardens are often spaces of hope, expected to solve many problems in a city including food insecurity and climate resilience. In fact, there has been ...

Kelly A. Spring, "SPAM: A Global History" (Reaktion, 2025)

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a conflict that solidified SPAM’s place in global food culture. Created...

John Nott, "Between Feast Famine: Food, Health, and the History of Ghana's Long Twentieth Century" (UCL Press, 2025)

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ghana’s twentieth century was one of dramatic political, economic, and environmental change. Sparked initially by the impositions of colonial rule, ...

Michael Grunwald, "We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate" (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Grunwald is a well renown journalist, who over the last thirty years has focused on public policy and national politics, with the last fifteen...

Michelle Phillipov, "Digital Food TV: The Cultural Place of Food in a Digital Era (Routledge, 2023)

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michelle Phillipov's Digital Food TV: The Cultural Place of Food in a Digital Era (Routledge, 2023) explores the new theoretical and political ques...

Matthew Allen, "Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The nineteenth-century spread of democracy in Britain and its colonies coincided with an increase in alcohol consumption and in celebratory public din...

Kathryn L. Beasley, "The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money" (University of Georgia Press, 2025)

22 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money (University of Georgia Press, 2025) examines how rural white and Afri...

L. Sasha Gora, "Culinary Claims: Indigenous Restaurant Politics in Canada" (University of Toronto Press, 2025)

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Culinary Claims: Indigenous Restaurant Politics in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2025) by Dr. L. Sasha Gora explores the complex relationships...

Barry W. Enderwick, "Sandwiches of History: The Cookbook: All the Best (and Most Surprising) Things People Have Put Between Slices of Bread" (Harvard Common Press, 2024)

15 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Barry Enderwick has been making, eating, and sharing historical sandwiches for years on social media @sandwichesofhistory and recently in live shows...

Laura Lee Flanagan, "Hardcore Vegetarian: Welcome to the Vegedome!" (Process Media, 2025)

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Laura Lee Flanagan's Hardcore Vegetarian (Feral House, 2025) is a celebration of food and love for everyone! Hardcore Vegetarian is a journey int...

Andrew Ofstehage, "Welcome to Soylandia: Transnational Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado" (Cornell UP, 2025)

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following a group of US Midwest farmers who purchased tracts of land in the tropical savanna of eastern Brazil, Welcome to Soylandia: Transnational ...

Carrie Helms Tippen, "Unpalatable: Stories of Pain and Pleasure in Southern Cookbooks" (UP of Mississippi, 2025)

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The cookbook genre is highly conventional with an orientation toward celebration and success. From glossy photographs to heartwarming stories and adje...

Annalisa Marzano, "Plants, Politics and Empire in Ancient Rome" (Cambridge UP. 2022)

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Plants, Politics and Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2022) by Dr. Annalisa Marzano investigates the cultural and political dimens...

Fernando Collantes, "Milk in Spain and the History of Diet Change: The Political Economy of Dairy Consumption Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

27 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In barely three generations the Spanish diet has changed beyond recognition. The traditional concerns around nutritional health and scarcity have been...

Enrique C. Ochoa, "México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality" (U Arizona Press, 2025)

20 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the birthplace of maize and a celebrated culinary destination, Mexico stands at the crossroads of gastronomic richness and stark social disparities...

Jennifer Clapp, "Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters" (MIT Press, 2025)

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of farm machinery, fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides are sold to farmers around the world. Although...

Christof Lammer, "Performing State Boundaries: Food Networks, Democratic Bureaucracy and China" (Berghahn, 2024)

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the podcast today I am joined by Christof Lammer, a social anthropologist based at the University of Klagenfurt and inherit fellow at Humboldt Un...

Will Potter, "Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable" (City Lights Books, 2025)

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable (City Lights Books, 2025) is a groundbreaking investigation of factory farms and the unprecede...

Nathalie Cooke, "Tastes and Traditions: A Journey Through Menu History" (Reaktion, 2025)

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Menus are invaluable snapshots of the food consumed at specific moments in time and place. Tastes and Traditions: A Journey through Menu History (Re...

Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn, "Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes" (America's Test Kitchen, 2025)

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When America’s Test Kitchen social media manager Sarah Ahn started her website Ahnest Kitchen to showcase her mother’s cooking via real-time vid...

Amy Cox Hall, "The Taste of Nostalgia: Women, Race, and Culinary Longing in Peru" (U Texas Press, 2025)

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From the late 1940s to the mid 1960s, Peru’s rapid industrialization and anti-communist authoritarianism coincided with the rise of mass-produced co...

Brendan A. Galipeau, "Crafting a Tibetan Terroir: Winemaking in Shangri-La" (U Washington Press, 2025)

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Aiming to explore the Sino-Tibetan border region, which is renamed “Shangri-La” by the Chinese government for tourism promotion, Crafting a Tibet...

Alcohol

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Nina Studer tells us about alcohol. The restrictions and prohibitions, medical and moral discourses surrounding alcoho...

Alexander Smalls and Nina Oduro, "The Contemporary African Kitchen: Home Cooking Recipes from the Leading Chefs of Africa" (Phaidon Press, 2024)

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Contemporary African Kitchen: Home Cooking Recipes from the Leading Chefs of Africa (Phaidon Press, 2024) is an elegant collection of 120 home co...

Kelly Alexander, "Truffles and Trash: Recirculating Food in a Social Welfare State" (UNC Press, 2024)

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On a fragile planet with spreading food insecurity, food waste is a political and ethical problem. Examining the collaborative, sometimes scrappy inst...

Emine Ö Evered, "Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity" (U Texas Press, 2024)

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Emine Ö. Evered’s Prohibition in Turkey: Alcohol and the Politics of Identity (University of Texas Press, 2024) investigates the histo...

Lori A. Flores, "Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to Covid-19" (UNC Press, 2025)

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Though Latinx foodways are eagerly embraced and consumed by people across the United States, the nation exhibits a much more fraught relationship with...

Philip Howell, "Pub" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The pub is an English institution. Yet its history has been obscured by myth and nostalgia. In Pub (Bloomsbury, 2025) a new addition to the Object L...

Zai Liang. "From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States" (U California Press, 2023)

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States (University of California Press, 2024...

Shmuel Goldin, "Unlocking the Haggada: The Complete Haggada With In-Depth Commentary" (OU Press, 2018)

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Who wrote the Haggada? Is there a thematic roadmap to the structure of the Seder? Why is the meal eaten in the middle of Hallel? These and many more q...

Victor M. Valle, "The Poetics of Fire: Metaphors of Chile Eating in the Borderlands" (U New Mexico Press, 2023)

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chile is more than just spice, writes Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and Cal Poly Ethnic Studies professor Victor Valle in The Poetics of Fire: M...

Patrick Dixon, "Nuggets of Gold: Further Processed Chicken and the Making of the American Diet" (U Georgia Press, 2024)

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For McDonald’s, the Chicken McNugget, the flagship product of further processed chicken, represented a once-in-a-generation innovation, a snack item...

Ariel Gordon, "Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest" (Wolsak and Wynn, 2024)

11 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Both personal and entertaining, Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024) is the highly anticipated second book of a trilogy and sh...

Dayne C. Riley, "Consuming Anxieties: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Trade in British Satire, 1660-1751" (Bucknell UP, 2024)

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries—a period of vast economic change—recognized that the global trade in alcohol and to...

Steven Shapin, "Eating and Being: A History of Ideas about Our Food and Ourselves" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What we eat, who we are, and the relationship between the two. Eating and Being: A History of Ideas about Our Food and Ourselves (University of Ch...

Joshua Brinkman on American Farming Culture and the History of Technology

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Joshua Brinkman, Assistant Teaching Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at North Carolina Stat...