Eating the Empire: Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain

(Hardback)

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An exploration of the extraordinary role that food played in shaping Britain during the `long' eighteenth century.

When students gathered in a London coffeehouse and smoked tobacco, Yorkshire women sipped sugar-infused tea, or a Glasgow family ate a bowl of Indian curry, were they aware of the mechanisms of imperial rule and trade that made such goods readily available In Eating the Empire, Troy Bickham unfolds the extraordinary role that food played in shaping Britain during the `long' eighteenth century (c. 1660-1837), when coffee, tea, and sugar went from rare luxuries to some of the most ubiquitous commodities in Britain, reaching even the poorest and remotest of households. Bickham reveals how the trade in the empire's edibles underpinned the emerging consumer economy, fomenting the rise of modern retailing, visual advertising and consumer credit, and, via taxes, financed the military and civil bureaucracy that secured, governed and spread the empire.

Reviews

"Richly illustrated with visual materials: well-chosen satires, political engravings, and trade cards. The narrative that runs throughout this publication is convincing and elegantly composed. Well-crafted and painstakingly researched, in the hands of this authoritative scholar, readers will find Bickham's Eating the Empire approachable and informative. Clearly, Bickham's work suggests the trajectory of food studies and is an important contribution to the fields of political and culinary histories. There is much to learn from Bickham's scholarship and, moreover, Eating the Empire is an enormously enjoyable read. This reviewer is eager to see where his research leads and awaits a second helping."-- "Reviews in History"
"Eating the Empire is a delicious soup, which brings humble and familiar ingredients together into a satisfying and nutritious meal. By studying the foodways of the British Isles during the long eighteenth century, Bickham shows how ordinary men and women encountered and appropriated the Empire, Europe, and the Enlightenment and developed a national cuisine that was both local and global."--Erika Rappaport, professor of history, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World
"Well researched and a highly enjoyable read, Eating the Empire is a good place to start for those seeking an introduction to Britain's commodity culture, its imperial dimensions, and the range of stimulating products that increasingly came to define the practices of 'civilized' consumption in the British Isles over the long eighteenth century. Bickham's beautifully illustrated text is chock full of interesting tidbits and fun asides while still engaging themes that are central to the historiography of this critical period of British imperial history."-- "Journal of British Studies"

Author Bio

Troy Bickham is Professor of History at Texas A&M University. He is the author of The Weight of Vengeance: The United States, the British Empire, and the War of 1812 (2012), Making Headlines: The American Revolution as Seen through the British Press (2009) and Savages within the Empire (2005).