How much can we learn about a different culture from its food choices in terms of local produce, preparation, and eating habits? In this four-volume resource, Ken Albala and a team of leading food scholars show how we can begin to understand the ways different cultures are formed and shaped by eating practices and behaviours. The work offers full global coverage at country, and in some cases, regional level. For each country featured there is a food culture snapshot, an exposé of the major foodstuffs, cooking techniques, typical meals, eating out practices - where relevant- and entries on special occasions, diet and health, as well as traditional recipes.

This truly comprehensive resource (“what’s not in here does not exist” – USA Today) offers an overview of all things related to what we consume. The work provides researchers with access to information on eating habits through the ages, covering all foods that have been hunted and gathered, grown and nurtured, eaten and consumed throughout human history. The resource features entries from 220 experts from 15 countries and the final section provides a dictionary of over 1,000 entries on food-plants, together with 4,000 other names for food-plant names.

Food History: Critical and Primary Sources

An indispensable reference collection which focuses on the widest possible span of food in human history, to provide a comprehensive survey of problems and methods in the field of food history. Bringing together a key selection of 30 high-quality essays from the volumes, this work combines contemporary scholarship with selected primary sources as an ideal starting point for historical research.

Images in the Bloomsbury Food Library

In partnership with The Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, USA, these specially curated images give an insight into 20th century restaurant culture in America, as well as recipes, and nutrition and serving guidelines for home cooks. Additional images have been specially selected from the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, which give a material culture insight into historical food vessels and types, from ancient near eastern cultures to 18th century Britain.

Bloomsbury Food Library features more than 100 ebooks in food studies, food history and anthropology of food, with a broad coverage of topics, periods, and cultures. Authored by leading scholars including Carol J. Adams, Warren Belasco, Pat Caplan, Anne Murcott, Fabio Parasecoli and Krishnendu Ray, these books are fully indexed and cross searchable by keyword using our custom taxonomy.

Students and researchers can also access the content through a specially created timeline and world map, and can browse by topic, place and period. 

Bloomsbury Food Library offers an array of podcasts on key topics to support learning on the go. Produced by Anna Sigrithur, the Ox Tales Podcasts offer thought-provoking stories about food, served fresh from the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery. The Bloomsbury Academic Podcast explores the Sexual Politics of Meat with renowned author Carol J. Adams, providing valuable learning resources for everyone interested in expanding their learning outside the classroom and exploring the difficult discussions taking place in society every day.

Global Food Histories is a unique collection that combines Bloomsbury’s digital excellence with Reaktion Books' market-leading food studies content, featuring over 120 eBooks to support the study of global food cuisine and food history. This rich, cross searchable module brings these key eBooks together in a single online package on an unlimited user basis, made available as part of the Bloomsbury Food Library digital hub.

Food Sustainability and Security is a rich and vibrant eBooks collection which combines key frontlist titles from across the Taylor & Francis, ABC-Clio, and Zed Books lists, all on one cross searchable platform. This dynamic product focuses on the important and growing topics of Food Sustainability and Security with a carefully curated content list that supports research and teaching in this vital and topical field of study. This unique collection is the only way to get access to this content all together in a single unified bundle, made digitally available on the Bloomsbury Food Library hub.

Global Food Cultures brings together 54 market leading monographs and reference works to provide a thorough exploration of global cultures though the unifying lens of food. This vibrant collection delves into food cultures from around the world with a vibrant mix of regional studies, encyclopedias and handbooks. With an inclusive range of titles and a truly global perspective, Global Food Cultures is a valuable research tool for students new to the topic, as well as instructors seeking to expand their courses and enrich their research.