What some good books about food production, science and history?

[RealMenJulienne]

I can offer up the first two:

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond - Has an extensive section about the earliest human domestication of food organisms explaining how we ended up with the pig, chicken and cow but not the rhino, gazelle or elephant. It also talks about how the earliest human crops were mutations of wild crops that would have been at a disadvantage in the wild; thin seed husks, for example, are bad for wilderness survival but good for attracting curious human farmers. It's a high-level overview but to an amateur like me it was fascinating.

"Salt, A World History" by Marki Kurlanksy - I haven't finished this one yet but it is highly readable and I strongly recommend it. These days salt is so cheap it's almost free, so it's easy to forget that for most of human history it was an irreplaceable resource that people fought and died over just like we do over petroleum today.

I'd like to get some recommendations from the readers on Chowhound. I'm especially interested in aquaculture and early efforts at food preservation like canning and curing but all books are welcome here.

[Sloth]

Two I've read in the past year that combine food and American history

- Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America
by Thomas J. Craughwell
- Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens
by Andrew Beahrs

[jmckee]

The Twain book is on my list.

[Bunson]

Eating Animals and The Botany of Desire were good, Omnivore's Dilemna and Four Fish are on my bookshelf waiting to be read.

[ipsedixit]

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"

[mike0989]

Gotta second this one. It was intended to spark Socialist reform but it instead lead to led to the eventual formation of the Food and Drug Administration.

[RealMenJulienne]

Some great recommendations here, thanks guys. Has anyone read "Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World" by Mark Kurlansky? It seems right up my alley but I don't know anyone who has read it.

Edited: oops, I see it has already been mentioned upthread

[jmckee]

I did. It's terrific.

[jmckee]

I also need to put in a plug for this: http://www.amazon.com/PURE-KETCHUP-PB...

[GreenGal]

"Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History" by Sidney Mintz is a personal favorite. Mintz discusses the cultural role of sugar globally as it evolved from a key component of the slave trade to its ubiquitous presence in our modern diets. I find this book incredibly readable, a classic in food anthropology. It's probably my favorite non-fiction book.

And of course since it is sugar, there is some discussion of sugar as historic preservative, touching on one of your requested topics.

[jmckee]

I liked Salt. I like all Kurlansky's books. "Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World" is terrific.

"The United States of Arugula" is a fascinating look at how America became a more food-conscious nation.

John Egerton's magisterial "Southern Food" may be the best work on the topic.

[cleobeach]

"The United States of Arugula" is a fascinating look at how America became a more food-conscious nation.

Oh yes, I really liked that book! And recognized myself in the pages.

Cod is on my reading list.

[Savour]

I liked Food of a Younger Land, which was edited by Kurlansky.

[fldhkybnva]

Cooking for Geeks

[Sooeygun]

I am currently reading 'Fear of Food' by Harvey Levenstein (he also has two other books about food history in America). Just finished a really interesting chapter about the history of beef production and contamination.

[firecooked]

A classic I recently read is "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. What's the most scary is how little things have changed in 100 years!

[cleobeach]

I did a report on The Jungle in high school and it haunted me for years.

[Delucacheesemonger]

Still proudly own a first edition, super story.

[firecooked]

What an interesting list! One I enjoyed was "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" by
Richard Wrangham

[rasputina]

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

[Crockett67]

Science; On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

Food Politics by Marion Nestle

USA History; Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky

Social Economic; Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, How to Cook a Wolf: M. F. K. Fisher, or On a Dollar a Day. Not only about food, but it plays a huge part in them.

[cleobeach]

I also enjoyed Salt.

Bottlemania (can't remember the author) is fantastic. It is about the country's drinking water systems, the development of the bottled water industry and the impact on the environment.

[Delucacheesemonger]

Robb Walsh has 'Sex, Death, and Oysters', the most factual and interesting of my 11 oyster books.

[pearlyriver]

I'm not so smart about science or aquaculture, but I'm especially interested in food history, its evolution and the way it enriches our life. Any recommendations?

[drongo]

Here's one I've read... good, though a little academic in parts:
Food: The History of Taste, edited by Paul Freedman http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520254767/ref=oh_details_o02_s02_i01

And here's one still on my "to read" list:
Feast: Why Humans Share Food, by Martin Jones http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199...