A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization (Hardcover)

~ Kenneth F. Kiple (Author)
Key Phrases: new foods, food homogeneity, food globalization, Movable Feast, New World, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Recycling much historical material from the magisterial Cambridge World History of Food (which the author co-edited), this slender volume distills 10,000 years of food history into just 300 pages. While the first work was notable for its rich multiplicity of voices and deeply informed scholarship, this one is a bit of a hash, owing to its author's insistence on squeezing a far-ranging narrative into the narrow framework of globalism. Far from being a new economic concept, the globalization of food, asserts Kiple, is as old as agriculture itself (globalization being murkily defined as "a process of homogenization whereby the cuisines of the world have been increasingly untied from regional food production, and one that promises to make the foods of the world available to everyone in the world"). The strongest material examines the spread of agriculture and its ramifications: it's a paradox of civilization that increased food production encourages population growth, which invariably creates food shortages and disease. That said, gastronomes will find scraps to nibble on here and there—who knew, for example, that the Egyptians trained their monkeys to harvest grapes? (June)
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Review

"Kenneth Kiple has written a delicious history of food, from the pickings our earliest ancestors happened to find under the trees to the amazing range of food available in the nearest supermarket today, from the first domesticated pigs to the prime pork chops we ate for dinner last night. This is a cornucopia of information about food, both profound and fun, a history, a reference book, and a collection of fascinating facts." --Bunny Crumpacker, author of The Sex Life of Food

'... brimming with curious titbits: the use of cocoa beans as currency; the accidental domestication of rye, oats and various legumes after they hitched a ride with wheat and barley; Coca-Cola's origins as a health tonic. Anyone interested in the history of food for whom The Cambridge World History of Food seems too large a helping will find Mr Kiple's sprightly summary volume far more palatable.' The Economist

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052179353X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521793537
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Movable Feast, May 23, 2007

By	V. Kennedy "book crazed" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book tracks human history and food from our earliest ancestors up to the present. It's loaded with information. If you've ever been curious about where foods come from and how they've changed the world, you should read this book. I enjoyed it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Scattershot, unsatisfying, questionable, August 11, 2009

By	C. C. S. Ryan "English instructor and eclecti... (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A Movable Feast goes on my list of vastly disappointing books. I don't know a lot about the source material, but in the bits that I am familiar with, the writer often gets things wrong, including the spelling of the Jomon period (never mind diacritical and doubled vowel variations, which I'm very generous on, but putting an R in?), claiming that the term "tip" comes from "To Insure Prompt Service"--a linguistic myth that NO writer or researcher should take seriously--and so on. So I wonder how much of the other things are true. Sadly, the fault appears to lie in the source material, the Cambridge World History of Food, and the fact that the author didn't bother to verify any of it before producing this new work based on it. He footnoted "tip" to CWHF, but sorry, that doesn't make it true.

If I were undertaking this kind of endeavor, I would have made sure that the world hadn't moved on and improved the research since CWHF was produced, or that the original contributor hadn't made a mistake. I mean, just because something appeared in black and white with Cambridge's name on it doesn't make it true, and large compilations tend to contain errors (see Nature's report on the error rate in the Encyclopedia Britannica for an example).

Another drawback is that the book purports to have a global perspective (and Cambridge, of course, is British) but the book is heavily US-focused. That's marginally defensible on some topics, such as fast food, although it's bizarre that the book leaves you with the impression that there are literally no non-American fast food chains in the world. However, it's not at all defensible on other topics (do we need a history of regional cuisines in the US if we're not going to get it for Italy or Russia or China?).

A final drawback is the scattershot organization of the book, which doesn't seem to be organized by any guiding principle at all--not chronology, geography, ingredients, or other themes. There are a few places where organization emerges but it quickly vanishes again, so references to things like McDonalds' effects on an area are made before you get to the fast food section, and you have the rare pleasure of running into the phrase "see ahead" in the text. This should have been a clear sign to the the editor that changes needed to be made.

I would say "recommended with caveats" because some portions seem interesting, but since I can't say how trustworthy those portions are, I'm going to say "not recommended." I think it's better to look for a book by a specialist in the particular area you're interested in, even if you wind up having to read a dozen books. If you like to know that what you are reading is really based in fact, or at least good research, this book just won't do.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting subject; terrible writing, September 21, 2007

By	Stephen M. Picca MD (Massapequa, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very frustrating book. The subject is fascinating,little known and relevant to anyone that has to eat food. Brief histories of nearly all foods are presented with an emphasis on how the various foods have traveled around the globe, often by accident.The problem is the writing. It is very dry reading, coming across as something between a very knowledgeable person's notebook and the first draft of a book for the public. It is several drafts away from being ready for a popular audience. Perhaps useful to look up something specific but too poorly written for casual reading.