Martha Carlin

Distinguished Professor
Department of History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Fall 2023

copyright Martha Carlin 2023, all rights reserved

HIST 840
Weekly discussion materials
Some historic menus

 

COVID-19 issues:

 As a member of our campus community, you are expected to abide by UWM’s COVID-Related Health & Safety Rules:

• Self-check for COVID symptoms at https://uwm.edu/coronavirus/symptom-monitor/. Symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, loss of sense of taste or smell.

If you test positive for COVID-19, please follow the instructions at https://uwm.edu/covid/faqs/ive-tested-positive-for-covid-19-what-do-i-do/

If you are ill or have been exposed to COVID-19:

Do not come to campus or attend any in-person class if you are ill or have COVID-19, if you are experiencing symptoms of illness.

Contact me immediately to discuss options for completing coursework while ill or in quarantine.

As your instructor, I will trust your word when you say you are ill, and in turn, I expect that you will report the reason for your absences truthfully.

Class recording:

Our class sessions may be recorded for students who are unable to attend at the scheduled time. Students who attend class are agreeing to be recorded.

Potential for switch to online instruction:

Changing public health circumstances for COVID-19 may require our class to pivot online at some point during the semester. Should this happen, we will meet at the scheduled times, and use Zoom as our online class platform. You will access it from the course Canvas page, and I will send you full instructions for using Zoom.

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Office:  Holton 320
Messages: History Department office (414) 229-4361/4362
Email:  carlin@uwm.edu
Website:  https://sites.uwm.edu/carlin/
Office hours: Tuesdays, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM, and by appointment

This course will survey the significance of food in human history over the past five thousand years.

 

Are we what we eat?  The history of human civilizations is inextricably bound to the history of food.  This seminar will explore the role of food throughout human history. We will survey the history of food and eating chronologically, from Prehistoric times to the present, and we will examine the role of food topically, analyzing its place in agriculture and commerce; famine and war; religion, ritual, and taboo; medical theory and diet; hospitality and power; eating and manners; technology and the household; age and gender; wealth and poverty; class and ethnicity; popular culture and national identity; changing tastes and the evolution of fashion; and myth and memory.  Students who take this class should expect to do a lot of reading and research, a lot of thinking and discussing, a lot of serious writing, and a certain amount of eating.

There are two required textbooks:

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner (New York: Macmillan, 1986).
ISBN:  0-020-08851-5
An electronic copy of the second edition (Since Eve Ate Apples Much Depends on Dinner, New York: Grove, 2008) can be read for free via the UWM Libraries at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwm/detail.action?docID=5503766. The pagination has changed, but not the chapters.

Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York: Stein and Day, 1973; rev. edn, Three Rivers Press, 1988).
ISBN: 0-517-88404-6

There are also required readings available on Canvas and on the Internet.  These are listed below under TOPICS AND READINGS.   The Canvas readings, are from the following books and journal articles:

Achaya, K. T.  Indian Food: A Historical Companion.  Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Call no.:  GT2853 I5 A28x 1994

Allison, Anne. “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 296-314.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

Anderson, N. “Traditional Medical Values of Food,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 80-91.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

Banerji, Chitrita.  “What Bengali Widows Cannot Eat.” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 163-71.
Call no.: [Not in library; a photocopy of Prof. Carlin’s copy is in Canvas].

Borrero, Mauricio. “Communal Dining and State Cafeterias in Moscow and Petrograd, 1917-1921,” in Food in Russian History and Culture, ed. Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 162-176.
Call no.:  GT2853.R8 F66 1997

Bynum, Caroline Walker. “Fast, Feast, and Flesh: The Religious Significance of Foodto Medieval Women,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 138-158.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

Carlin, Martha.   “Provisions for the Poor: Fast Food in Medieval London.” Franco-British Studies: Journal of the British Institute in Paris, no. 20 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 35-48.
Call no.: [Not in library; a photocoy of Prof. Carlin’s copy is in Canvas.]

Chang, K. C., ed., Food in Chinese Culture.  New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977.
Call no.:  GT2853 C6 F66

Counihan, Carole, and Penny Van Esterik, eds.  Food and Culture: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

De Silva, Cara, ed.  In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezín.  Trans. Bianca Steiner Brown, with forward by Michael Berenbaum.  Northvale, New Jersey, and London: Jason Aronson, 1996.
Call no.:  D805.C9 I5 1996

Davidson, Alan.  A Kipper with My Tea: Selected Food Essays. London: Macmillan, 1988.
Call no.:  TX355.5 D38 1990

Diner, Hasia R. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 2001, Chapter 5, “The Sounds of Silence: Irish Food in America,” pp. 113-45, with notes on 262-8.
Call no.: GT2853 .U5 D54 2001

Dusselier, Jane. “Bonbons, Lemon Drops, and Oh Henry! Bars: Candy, Consu,er Culture, and the Construction of Gender, 1895-1920,” in Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, ed. Sherrie A. Inness (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), pp. 13-49.
Call no.: GT2853 .U5 K57 2001

Glants, Musya. “Food as Art: Painting in Late Soviet Russia,” in Food in Russian History and Culture, ed. Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 215-237.
Call no.:  GT2853.R8 F66 1997

Glants, Musya, and Joyce Toomre, eds. Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997).
Call no.:  GT2853.R8 F66 1997

Goody, Jack. “Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 338-356.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

Grew, Raymond, ed. Food in Global History (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999), idem, “Food and Global History,” pp. 1-14, 22-29.
Call no.:  TX353 .F64 1999

Inness, Sherrie A., ed. Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).
Call no.: GT2853 .U5 K57 2001

LeBlanc, Ronald L. “Tolstoy’s Way of All Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism, and Christian Physiology,” in Food in Russian History and Culture, ed. Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 81-102.
Call no.:  GT2853.R8 F66 1997

Mote, Frederick W. “Yüan [AD 1271-1368] and Ming [AD 1368-1644],” in Food in Chinese Culture, ed. K. C. Chang (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 234-240.
Call no.:  GT2853 C6 F66

Pilcher, Jeffrey M.  ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Call no.:  TX716.M4 P54 1998

Roden, Claudia. “Jewish Food in the Middle East,” in Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, ed. Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 153-158.
Call no.:  GT2853 N33 C85x 1994

Shapiro, Laura.  “Do Women Like to Cook?” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 153-62.
Call no.: [Not in library; a photocopy of Prof. Carlin’s copy is in Canvas.]

Soler, Jean. “The Semiotics of Food in the Bible,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 55-66.
Call no.:  GT 2850 .F64 1997

Visser, Margaret. The Rituals of Dinner (New York: Penguin, 1991).
Call no.: BJ2041 .V57 1992

Watson, James L., and Melissa L. Caldwell, eds. The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Call no.: GT2850 .C853 2005

Yan, Yunxiang. “Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonald’s in Beijing,” in The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader, ed. James L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 86-103 (excerpt).
Call no.: GT2850 .C853 2005

Zubaida, Sami,  and Richard Tapper, eds.  Culinary Cultures of the Middle East.  London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994.
Call no.:  GT2853 N33 C85x 1994

 

Email and Internet access: You will require an email account and access to the Internet for this class. All UWM students receive a free UWM email account. If you routinely use some other email account (such as a Gmail account), please go immediately into your UWM email account and put a forwarding command on it, to forward all incoming email to the account that you routinely use. This is your responsibility; the History Department will use your assigned UWM e-address only. (To put a forwarding command on your UWM email account: enter your Office 365 account and click on the “gear” icon to enter “Settings.” Type “forwarding,” and follow the instructions to forward email to your desired account.)

Papers:   There is a required weekly one-page précis of the assigned readings.  There is also one required 20-page research paper and two required interim assignments designed to aid you in producing it.  These written assignments are described at the end of this syllabus.  The research paper is due in class in Week 11 (14 Nov. 2023).

Oral presentations:  There is one required formal oral presentation (worth 5% of final grade). All students will prepare and bring to the final class (Week 15) one dish from the menu that is the subject of their research paper.  Each student will give a brief oral presentation on that dish and its cultural and historical significance, after which we will all share the foods in a class banquet.

Exams:  There will be no midterm or final exam.

Grading:  Your final grade will be based equally on your weekly précis (25%), your attendance, active participation, and other work in class (30%), the two interim assignments (5% each), your research paper (30%), and your oral report (5%). All assignments are due on the dates specified in this syllabus.  Late work will not be accepted, and absence from class will not be excused, except in cases of major illness or emergency (please contact me immediately in such a case). Students who, during the first week of classes, do not attend class or contact me, may be dropped administratively.

Electronic devices in class: You may use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone in class, but ONLY for work related to this class. This is a zero-tolerance policy: any off-task computer use will result in the immediate forfeiture of the privilege of using the device in class for the remainder of the semester. All electronic devices must be silenced during class.

Disabilities: If you have a disability, it is essential that you contact me ASAP to discuss any help or accommodation you may need.

Students in need: Any student who faces challenges securing food, housing, or technology, or is struggling with mental, physical, or emotional health, and believes this may affect their academic performance, is urged to contact the Dean of Students (dos@uwm.edu) for support.

Academic integrity at UWM: UWM and I expect each student to be honest in academic performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published by the Board of Regents (UWS 14). The penalties for academic misconduct such as cheating or plagiarism can include a grade of “F” for the course and expulsion from the University. For UWM’s policies on academic integrity, see https://uwm.edu/deanofstudents/academic-misconduct/ and https://uwm.edu/academicaffairs/facultystaff/policies/academic-misconduct/

UWM policies on course-related matters: See the website of the Secretary of the University, at: https://uwm.edu/secu/wp-content/uploads/sites/122/2016/12/Syllabus-Links.pdf

 

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TOPICS AND READINGS

 

WEEK 1    INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

5 Sept.       Introduction to course; discussion of course scope and requirements, etc.

 

WEEK 2     GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, FOOD RESOURCES, AND COMMERCE

12 Sept.

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 19-41 (Chap. 3: “Changing the Face of the Earth”), 43-59 (Part Two, Introduction, and Chap. 4: “The First Civilizations”)

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 11-21 (Introduction: “What Shall We Have for Dinner?”)

Jack Goody, “Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 338-356.

 

WEEK 3     THE STAFF OF LIFE: GRAIN AND SALT

19 Sept.      [Assignment 1 due in class]

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 60-70 (Chap. 5: “Classical Greece”), 71-91 (Chap. 6: “Imperial Rome”), 92-102 (Chap. 7: “The Silent Centuries”)

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 22-55 (Chap. 1: “Corn: Our Mother, Our Life”), 56-82 Chap. 2: “Salt: The Edible Rock”), 155-191 (Chap. 5: “Rice: The Tyrant with a Soul”)

 

WEEK 4     FOOD OF POWER: PROTEIN AND FAT

26 Sept.      Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 103-123 (Part Three: Introduction, Chap. 8: “India,” Chap. 9: “Central Asia”)

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 83-114 (Chap. 3: “Butter – and Something `Just as Good’”), 115-154 (Chap. 4: “Chicken: From Jungle Fowl to Patties”), 224-258 (Chap. 7: “Olive Oil: A Tree and Its Fruits”)

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 227-242 (“Carving,” plus notes on pp. 370-1)

 

WEEK 5     RELIGION, RITUAL, AND TABOO

3 Oct.        Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 124-140 (Chap. 10: “China”)

The Bible, Leviticus, Chap.11 (Since this text has no argument or evidence, merely summarize it in your weekly précis; URL below)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus+11

Jean Soler, “The Semiotics of Food in the Bible,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 55-66.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 7-18.

Caroline Walker Bynum, “Fast, Feast, and Flesh: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 138-158.

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, “Pollution,” pp. 27-37 (“Feasting and Sacrifice,” plus notes on pp. 360-1), 297-326 (“No Offence,” plus notes on pp. 374-5)

T. Achaya, Indian Food: A Historical Companion (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 61-76 (Chap. 6: “Indian Food Ethos”).

 

WEEK 6     MEDICAL THEORY AND DIET

10 Oct.       [Assignment 2 due in class]

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 141-151 (Chap. 11: “The Arab World”)

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 259-284 (Chap. 8: “Lemon Juice: A Sour Note”)

N. Anderson, “Traditional Medical Values of Food,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 80-91.

Ronald L. LeBlanc, “Tolstoy’s Way of All Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism, and Christian Physiology,”  in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 81-102.

Alan Davidson, “Not Yogurt with Fish,” in idem, A Kipper with My Tea: Selected Food Essays (London: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 149-51.

 

WEEK 7     SHARING THE TABLE

17 Oct.       Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 153-173 (Part Three: Introduction; Chap. 12: “Supplying the Towns”)

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 79-89, 109-136 (excerpts from Chap. 4: “The Pleasure of Your Company,” plus notes on pp. 363-5), 326-337 (“The Proprieties of Posture and Demeanor,” plus notes on p. 376)

Mauricio Borrero, “Communal Dining and State Cafeterias in Moscow and Petrograd, 1917-1921,” in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 162-176.

 

WEEK 8     EATING AND MANNERS

24 Oct.       Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 174-195 (Chap. 13: “The Medieval Table”)

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 146-155, 167-196, 208-210, 284-295 (“Taking Note of Our Surroundings,” “Fingers,” “Chopsticks,” “Knives, Forks, Spoons,” discussion of hamburgers, “All Gone,” plus notes on pp. 366-9., 373-4)

 

WEEK 9     TECHNOLOGY AND THE HOUSEHOLD

31 Oct.       Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 197-223 (Part Five: Introduction; Chap. 14: “New Worlds;” Chap. 15: “The Americas”)

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 192-223 (Chap. 6: “Lettuce: The Vicissitudes of Salad”)

Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 99-111.

Laura Shapiro, “Do Women Like to Cook?” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 153-62.

 

WEEK 10     AGE AND GENDER

7 Nov.          Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 224-229 (Chap. 16: “Food for the Traveller”)

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 39-56 (“Learning to Behave: Bringing Children Up,” plus notes on pp. 361-2), 272-84 (“Feeding, Feasts, and Females,” plus notes on pp. 372-3)

Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 145-150.

Jane Dusselier, “Bonbons, Lemon Drops, and Oh Henry! Bars: Candy, Consumer  Culture, and the Construction of Gender, 1895-1920,” in Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, ed. Sherrie A. Inness (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), pp. 13-49.

Chitrita Banerji, “What Bengali Widows Cannot Eat,” Granta, 52 (Winter, 1995), 163-71.

 

WEEK 11     WEALTH, CLASS, AND ETHNICITY

14 Nov.       [Research paper due in class]

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 230-251 (Chap. 17: “A Gastronomic Grand Tour: 1”)

Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, pp. 56-78 (“Inhibitions,” and “Aspirations”)

Martha Carlin, “Provisions for the Poor: Fast Food in Medieval London,” Franco-British Studies: Journal of the British Institute in Paris, no. 20 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 35-48.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), pp. 38-43, 52-57.

Hasia R. Diner, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 2001, Chapter 5, “The Sounds of Silence: Irish Food in America,” pp. 113-45, with notes on 262-8.

 

WEEK 12     POPULAR CULTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

21 Nov.         Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 252-279 (Chap. 18: “A Gastronomic Grand Tour: 2”)

Claudia Roden, “Jewish Food in the Middle East,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1994), pp. 153-158.

Anne Allison, “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 296-314.

Musya Glants, “Food as Art: Painting in Late Soviet Russia,” in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds., Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 215-237.

 

WEEK 13     CHANGING TASTES AND EATING FOR PLEASURE

28 Nov.        Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner, pp. 285-322 (Chap. 9: “Ice Cream: Cold Comfort”)

Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 281-346 (Part Six: Introduction; Chap. 19: “The Industrial Revolution;” Chap. 20: “The Food-Supply Revolution;” Chap. 21: “The Scientific Revolution”)

Frederick W. Mote, “Yüan [ AD 1271-1368] and Ming [AD 1368-1644],” in  K. C. Chang, ed., Food in Chinese Culture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 234-240.

Yunxian Yan, “Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonald’s in Beijing,” in The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader, ed. James L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 86-103 (excerpt).

 

WEEK 14     MYTH AND MEMORY; FOOD AND GLOBAL HISTORY

5 Dec.           Reay Tannahill, Food in History, pp. 347-371 (Chap. 22: “Confused New World;” Epilogue)

Cara De Silva, ed., In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezín, trans. Bianca Steiner Brown, with forward by Michael Berenbaum (Northvale, New Jersey, and London: Jason Aronson, 1996), pp. ix-xvi, xix-xliii.

Jan Thompson,  “Prisoners of the Rising Sun: Food Memories of American POWs in the Far East During World War II,” in Food and Memory: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 2000, ed. Harlan Walker (London: Prospect Books, 2001), pp. 273-86:
https://sites.uwm.edu/carlin/prisoners-of-the-rising-sun/

Alan Davidson, A Kipper with My Tea: Selected Food Essays (London: Macmillan, 1988), “Funeral Cookbooks,” pp. 27-8.

Sami Zubaida, “National, Communal, and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures,” in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London and New York: I.B. Tauris,1994), pp. 33-41.

Raymond Grew, “Food and Global History,” in Food in Global History, ed. Raymond Grew (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999), pp. 1-14, 22-29.

 

WEEK 15     ORAL PRESENTATIONS AND BANQUET

12 Dec.          Oral presentations (described at beginning of syllabus, under Oral presentations), followed by class banquet.

 

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS FOR HISTORY 840

I. Weekly précis:

For each assigned reading other than Tannahill, provide a complete bibliographical reference, followed by a brief summary of the main argument(s). Do not discuss factual information, just identify the argument(s). For each argument, cite the relevant page number(s).  The total length of your weekly précis should not exceed one double-spaced page.

 

II. Interim assignments for research paper:

Assignment 1      Due in class, Week 3 (19 Sept. 2023)

Topic for your research paper.  Must include:

• 3 choices of menus (ranked 1-3)
• Complete hard copy (not just a URL!) of each menu
• Complete bibliographical reference for each menu (use Chicago-style)
• Date, place, and occasion or historical context of each menu

Assignment 2      Due in class, Week 6 (10 Oct. 2023)

Annotated bibliography of 3 relevant primary sources and 7 relevant, scholarly, secondary sources that you will be using to research your chosen menu.

At the top of your annotated bibliography, identify your chosen menu.

Then, for each source:

• Give a full bibliographical citation (use Chicago-style)
• Provide a brief (one-paragraph maximum) description of its contents and its relevance to your chosen menu

III.  Research paper:

The paper is due in hard copy (NOT in Canvas) in class in Week 11 (14 Nov. 2023).  No extensions will be allowed on the paper except in the case of major illness or emergency (please contact me immediately in such a case).

The focus of your paper must be your edition of an actual historic menu.  You may choose your menu from any place and any period in world history, but it will have to be approved by me.  I have placed a sample collection of menus on my home page, and you are welcome to choose one of these or to find your own.  Only one student may work on any individual menu.  You must submit your choice to me by Week 3 (see above, Assignment 1) for approval.

Your paper should concentrate on asking, what does this menu tell us about the society that created it?

There are many possible ways to approach this question.  For example, what does your menu say about its society’s:

• Climate and agriculture?
• Economy and trade?
• Access to distant or foreign products?
• Wealth and power?
• Good times or hard times?
• State of peace or war?
• Religious traditions and taboos?
• Medical and nutritional theories?
• Hospitality rituals?
• Etiquette conventions?
• Food technologies?
• Household labor arrangements?
• Eating conventions concerning age, gender, and class?
• Cultural preferences, and ethnic and national identities?
• Role of fashion in food consumption?
• Myths and memories?
• Attitudes towards food and eating?

Your menu may commemorate a religious holiday or a special event, such as a coronation, a military victory, a wedding, or a funeral.  Equally, it may represent a typical, “everyday” meal, for a private household or an institution (e.g., a school, a prison, or a military unit), or it may represent the commercial offerings of a restaurant, hotel, or cruise ship.  The intended diners may be rich or poor, and they may be living in a time of war or peace, in good times or bad.  Therefore, you might also wish to consider whether or not your menu:

• Is typical of the “everyday” food of its place and period?
• Is designed as a piece of political, religious, or cultural propaganda?
• Is place- or class-specific?
• Is intrinsically commercial or institutional, or domestic in character?
• Is designed to please the diners, or to control them, or both?

Your paper must be 18-20 double-spaced pages long, exclusive of endnotes, bibliography, and any appendices. It must be based on a minimum of three primary sources and seven scholarly secondary sources.

In searching for sources, in addition to the readings on this syllabus (and the sources they cite), you may wish to consult the following online bibliographies and research guides on food history:

Thomas Gloning, “Bibliography on Cookery, Food, Wine, etc., mainly 1350-1800”
https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb05/germanistik/absprache/sprachverwendung/gloning/kobu.htm#bibl

Harvard, Schlesinger Library Research Guides: Culinary & Food History Databases
https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=311003&p=2081838

Sarah Wassberg Johnson, “Food History Bibliography” (brief; focuses on America c. 1900-1950s)
https://www.thefoodhistorian.com/bibliography.html

Kenneth Lipartito, “Food in History Bibliography”
https://web.archive.org/web/20160614015034/http://vi.uh.edu/pages/lprtomat/bib~1.htm

New York Public Library Research Guides: “Culinary History”
https://www.nypl.org/node/5629

Martin Skjöldebrand, “Bibliography of Culinary History”
https://web.archive.org/web/20030307011049/http://www.bahnhof.se/~chimbis/tocb/info/sub-biblio.htm

UW-Madison Libraries Research Guides: Cookbooks, Culinary Arts, Culinary History
https://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/c.php?g=178165&p=5952634

Your paper must be written at a college level, using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It must be fully documented with endnotes and a bibliography, using the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) format. (Recent versions of Microsoft Word include CMOS citation format as a built-in option for footnotes or endnotes. Be sure to use endnotes with arabic numerals for this paper.)

The UWM Libraries subscribe to the Chicago Manual of Style Online. You can get free access to the full text of CMOS via the libraries’ online catalogue, at:
https://wisconsin-uwm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9920133153402124&context=L&vid=01UWI_ML:MIL&lang=en&search_scope=DN_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=MAIN&query=any,contains,chicago%20manual%20of%20style%20online&mod
You will need to sign in with your UWM username and password.

For a quick overview of how to do endnotes and bibliography in CMOS format, consult the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide. If you have logged into the full CMOS Online, you can click on the Quick Guide from there. You can also go directly to the Quick Guide at this URL: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. The numbered entries are examples of Notes; the unnumbered entries are examples of Bibliography entries.