front cover of Fats
Fats
A Global History
Michelle Phillipov
Reaktion Books, 2016
Butter, oil, tallow, lard, schmaltz—nutritionally crucial yet often villainized, at once rich yet cheap, fat is one of the most paradoxical categories of foods we consume. Shaping every cuisine on earth, fats in their various forms come with myriad cultural and symbolic meanings, playing an important role for a variety of people, from poor farmers to decadent aristocrats. Fats tells the story of this extraordinary substance—alternately reviled and revered but nonetheless always a crucial part of our diets.
           
Michelle Phillipov considers the changing fates and fortunes of fats across time and around the globe. From their past associations with prestige and social authority to their links to fast food and overindulgence in modern times, she explores the different meanings, debates, and controversies that have surrounded this staple food, which has been both an invaluable source of nutrition and the bane of public health concerns. She also looks to its current renaissance in media and popular culture and the renewed appreciation it enjoys as an important part of traditional foodways that stretch back all the way to prehistoric times, when the Paleo diet was even more popular than it is today. Dripping with recipes from around the world, Fats reveals and celebrates that one ingredient that makes everything taste better. 
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Feminisms
A Global History
Lucy Delap
University of Chicago Press, 2020
Feminism’s origins have often been framed around a limited cast of mostly white and educated foremothers, but the truth is that feminism has been and continues to be a global movement. For centuries, women from all walks of life have been mobilizing for gender justice. As the last decade has reminded even the most powerful women, there is nothing “post-feminist” about our world. And there is much to be learned from the passion and protests of the past.

Historian Lucy Delap looks to the global past to give us a usable history of the movement against gender injustice—one that can help clarify questions of feminist strategy, priority and focus in the contemporary moment. Rooted in recent innovative histories, the book incorporates alternative starting points and new thinkers, challenging the presumed priority of European feminists and ranging across a global terrain of revolutions, religions, empires and anti-colonial struggles.

In Feminisms, we find familiar stories—of suffrage, of solidarity, of protest—yet there is no assumption that feminism looks the same in each place or time. Instead, Delap explores a central paradox: feminists have demanded inclusion but have persistently practiced their own exclusions. Some voices are heard and others are routinely muted. In amplifying the voices of figures at the grassroots level, Delap shows us how a rich relationship to the feminist past can help inform its future.
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front cover of Fighting the Great War
Fighting the Great War
A Global History
Michael S. Neiberg
Harvard University Press, 2006

Despair at Gallipoli. Victory at Vimy Ridge. A European generation lost, an American spirit found. The First World War, the deadly herald of a new era, continues to captivate readers. In this lively book, Michael Neiberg offers a concise history based on the latest research and insights into the soldiers, commanders, battles, and legacies of the Great War.

Tracing the war from Verdun to Salonika to Baghdad to German East Africa, Neiberg illuminates the global nature of the conflict. More than four years of mindless slaughter in the trenches on the western front, World War I was the first fought in three dimensions: in the air, at sea, and through mechanized ground warfare. New weapons systems--tanks, bomber aircraft, and long-range artillery--all shaped the battle environment. Moving beyond the standard portrayal of the war's generals as "butchers and bunglers," Neiberg offers a nuanced discussion of officers constrained by the monumental scale of complex events. Diaries and letters of men serving on the front lines capture the personal stories and brutal conditions--from Alpine snows to Mesopotamian sands--under which these soldiers lived, fought, and died.

Generously illustrated, with many never-before-published photographs, this book is an impressive blend of analysis and narrative. Anyone interested in understanding the twentieth century must begin with its first global conflict, and there is no better place to start than with Fighting the Great War.

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front cover of Figs
Figs
A Global History
David C. Sutton
Reaktion Books, 2014
Lusciously sweet and with a complex texture, figs are both a nutritious culinary delicacy and an important symbol in religion and culture. Associated with Christmas since the time of Charles Dickens—not to mention Dionysus or the Garden of Eden—the fig is steeped in history. In this account of the festive fruit, David C. Sutton places the fig in its historical context, examining its peculiar origins and the importance it has garnered in so many countries.
           
Sutton begins by describing the fig’s strange biology—botanically, it is not a fruit, but rather a cluster of ingrowing flowers—then considers its Arabian origins, including the possibility that the earliest seeds were transported from Yemen to Mesopotamia in the dung of donkeys. Exploring the history of the fruit in fascinating detail, Sutton postulates that the “forbidden fruit” eaten by Adam and Eve was not an apple, but a fig; and he discusses the role figs played for the Crusaders and guides readers toward the wonderful fig festivals held today. Chock full of tasty recipes, intriguing facts, and bizarre stories, Figs is a toothsome book of delights. 
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front cover of Foie Gras
Foie Gras
A Global History
Norman Kolpas
Reaktion Books, 2021
Few ingredients inspire more soaring praise and provoke greater outrage than foie gras. Literally meaning “fat liver,” foie gras is traditionally produced by force-feeding geese or ducks, a process which has become the object of widespread controversy and debate. In Foie Gras: A Global History, Norman Kolpas strives to provide a balanced account of this luxurious ingredient’s history and production from ancient Egypt to modern times. Kolpas also explores how foie gras has inspired famous writers, artists, and musicians including Homer, Herman Melville, Isaac Asimov, Claude Monet, and Gioachino Antonio Rossini. The book includes a guide to purchasing, preparing, and serving foie gras, as well as ten easy recipes, from classic dishes to contemporary treats.
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