Eating & Drinking in History

Catalog description

Eating and Drinking are part of our everyday lives and experiences, and in that respect, these processes can seem natural rather than historical. However, if we stop and think about it, the politics, economics, and culture of food production and consumption have shaped communities and cultures in specific, and often divergent, ways. In this course, we will take the overarching rubric of eating and drinking to explore the multiple ways in which studying food can illuminate our understanding of the past. This course will include units on food, war, and hunger; commodity chains and trade; cultural relationships with alcohol; and labor and food production in the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial era. This is a team taught class taught by the History faculty. Each professor will teach a 1-week unit on eating and drinking related to their area of specialization.