History of Bread

For a long time, everything revolved around bread. Providing more than half of people's daily calories, bread was the life-source of Europe for centuries. In the middle of 19th century, a third of household expenditure was spent on bread. Why, then, does it only account for 0.8% of expenditure and just 12% of daily calories today? In this book, Peter Scholliers delves into the history of bread to map out its defining moments and people. From the price revolution of the 1890s that led to affordable and pure white bread, to the taste revolution of the 1990s that ushered in healthy brown bread, he studies consumers, bakers and governments to explain how and why this food that once powered an entire continent has fallen by the wayside, and what this means for the modern age. From prices and consumption to legislation and technology, Scholliers shows how the history of bread has been shaped by subtle cultural shifts as well as top-down decisions from ruling bodies. From the small home baker to booming factories, he follows changes in agriculture, transport, production and policy since the 19th century to explain why bread, once the centre of everything, is not so today.

Review: Bread, a name that tastes ancient and "natural". But bread does not exist in nature. Since it was invented it has been a symbol of innovation and creativity. Bread is the perfect food, designed by humans for humans. After millennia, it continues to hold the secret of humanity. * Massimo Montanari, Professor of Medieval History, Bologna University, Italy *
In a masterful and lively study, as rigorous as it is graceful, Scholliers insists on the essential : bread is at the core of public and private life, as much a political and social as a nutritional and gastronomical object, a powerful force of and for life, yet also a reminder of its fragility. * Steven Laurence Kaplan, Goldwin Smith Professor emeritus of European History, Cornell University, USA *
Bread was, for centuries, the staple of most Europeans' diets. Here Peter Scholliers weaves together economic and medical histories, the daily lives of workers, the histories of technology and consumption, to demonstrate how a simple item like a loaf of bread can trace historical change in all its complexity. * Rachel Rich, Reader in Modern European History, Leeds Beckett University, UK *