FA: Food in History by Reay Tannahill, 1973 HB/DJ

Food in History
by Reay Tannahill

Some thirty million years ago, a shortage of eggs, nestlings, and fruit
drove the ape down from his home in the trees to see what the grasslands
could provide. There he found lizards and porcupines, tortoises and ground
squirrels, moles, insects, and grubs, and made them part of his diet. The
ape was on his way to becoming naked. In a sense it was food that made man.
And in many ways, food made history, too. Finding a good supply of meat and
grain turned cavemen into village dwellers. On the fertile land bordering
great rivers, the world’s first civilizations were born. And it was an
horizon-expanding quest for spices that opened up the New World. This is a
pioneering work, drawing on the findings of archaeology, anthropology,
biology, economics and many other disciplines to examine not only the
influences that have shaped man’s diet, but how the pursuit of more and
better food directs, often decisively, the course of history. Illustrated
with B&W photos and drawings.

Stein and Day Publishers, New York, 1973, book club edition, 448 pages, 6 ¼"
x 9 ¼", red cloth with gold lettering and green cloth spine with gold
lettering on darker green background, dust jacket, dark green endpapers,
illustrated.

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Auction closes 6/22/04.