HIST 2150

Food has been understood in a variety of ways: spices to preserve and mask rotting meats; sugar, chocolate and raisins as cure-alls; cocoa as a hallucinogen; potatoes as a plot to kill off surplus peasants; porridge as a middle-class conspiracy to undermine working-class culture. In this course we use intrinsically interesting case studies to explore important themes in the history of food discovery, distribution, and consumption. Underlying themes may include the use of unfree labour, the expansion of a capitalist economic system, the growth and evolution of European imperialism, and negotiations in social relations along class, gender, and racial/ethnic lines.