It is no grand observation to see that food studies, food politics, food culture (and even food landscapes, it would appear) feed a growing body of literature in the academy and at your local big box bookstore. (Who will be the first to call me out on that pun?) Here are some of them, the ones that are mostly singularly named. They are all summarized in a review essay at the Chronicle of Higher Education, from a few months back. Although not explicit in their titles or summaries, the histories of science and technology are implicated in all of these food histories.
- Hamburger: A Global History
- Pizza: A Global History
- Pancake: A Global History
- Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut
Apparently the first three of them (the "global histories") are part of a new Edible Series distributed by the University of Chicago Press. Add that series to the Food, Health, and Environment one over at MIT, and you're two-thirds of the way to a three-minimum list. (Maybe the University of California Press series on Food History can provide the third leg of this triumvirate.)
And might I add the essay "Consider the Lobster" to the above reading list? It's not a book, true, but it is nearly singularly titled and about lobster. And animal ethics. And food. And the American consumer. And David Foster Wallace wrote it.
Ha! For once, the Canadians beat the Americans to staking out a claim in the historical literature. See also, Steven Penfold's excellent study of the donut in Canadian social and cultural history, titled: The Donut: A Canadian History. Oh, wait - it was also published in 2008.
http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/The_Donut-A_Canadian_History/0802095453/