Saturday, May 24, 2014

Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England - Review

Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England by Allen J. Frantzen


Description:   A look at food in a more everyday sense than just feasts and celebrations.  This takes a look at the meaning of food and the activity of food preparation in everyday like during Anglo-Saxon times in England by examining texts and archaeological finds.

Genre: Non-Fiction

My Impression:  This is an intensely researched all encompassing look at food and everyday life for the Anglo-Saxons.  This is a subject that fascinates me and is definitely on trend with the growing interest in farm-to-table eating and knowing where your food comes from.  In this book we are able to see food in a back to basics way long before anything approaching industrialized farming.  While this is an interesting topic put forward in a readable manner it is more of a text book than a read for pleasure style book.  I liked that Frantzen included a very detailed table of contents so that it was possible to go to the sections you were most interested in.  As well I think this would work better in hard copy form as it contains a large number of foot notes and that would make it easier to flip to different sections.  This would be a fantastic research source.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Yes

Would I Recommend this Book?:  This would be an excellent source for any kind of project of class regarding the way food was used in everyday life in Anglo-Saxon times.

2 comments:

  1. The subject matter fascinates me. There have been quite a few tv programs showcasing farm to table,and just local foraging that I find intriguing.

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  2. Hmm, interesting but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to read something that reads a bit like a text book. Glad you found plenty to like in it.

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