The last 20 years have seen a burgeoning of social scientific and historical research on food. The field has drawn in experts to investigate topics such as: the way globalisation affects the food supply; what cookery books can (and cannot) tell us; changing understandings of famine; the social meanings of meals - and many more. Now sufficiently extensive to require a critical overview, this is the first handbook of specially commissioned essays to provide a tour d'horizon of this broad range of topics and disciplines. The editors have enlisted eminent researchers across the social sciences to illustrate the debates, concepts and analytic approaches of this widely diverse and dynamic field.

This volume will be essential reading, a ready-to-hand reference book surveying the state of the art for anyone involved in, and actively concerned about research on the social, political, economic, psychological, geographic and historical aspects of food. It will cater for all who need to be informed of research that has been done and that is being done.

Anne Murcott is Professorial Research Associate, Food Studies Centre, SOAS University of London and Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham, UK.

Warren Belasco is Professor Emeritus of American Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Foreword by Sidney W. Mintz (John Hopkins University, USA)
A Burgeoning Field: Introduction to The Handbook of Food Research - Anne Murcott (SOAS, University of Nottingham and London South Bank University, UK)

Part One: Historical Essentials
Editorial Introduction
The History of Globalization and the Food Supply - Leigh Bush, Adrianne Bryant, and Richard Wilk (Indiana University, USA)
Re-thinking the Economic and Social History of Agriculture and Food, Through the Lens of Food Choice - Richard Le Heron (University of Auckland, NZ)
Feeding Growing Cities in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Problems, Innovations and Reputations - Peter Scholliers and Patricia Van Den Eeckhout (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium)
The Historical Development of Industrial and Domestic Food Technologies - Mónica Truninger (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Social History of the Science of Food Analysis and the Control of Adulteration - Peter J. Atkins (University of Durham, UK)
Representations of Food Production and Consumption: Cookbooks as Historical Sources - Kyri W. Claflin (Boston University, USA)

Part Two: Frameworks of Provision: Production and Distribution
Editorial Introduction
Contemporary Food Systems - Terry Marsden (Cardiff University, UK)
Economics, Food Demand and Nutrition - Richard Tiffin and Matthew Salois (University of Reading, UK)
Food Chains - Bill Pritchard (University of Sydney, Australia)
Food and the Audit Society - Hugh Campbell (University of Otago, NZ)
Environmental Issues in Agriculture: Farming Systems and Ecosystem Services - Michael Winter (University of Exeter, UK)
Appellations and indications of origin, terroir, and the social construction and contestation of place-named foods - Harry G. West (SOAS, UK)
A Critical Turn in Hospitality and Tourism Research - Richard Mitchell and David Scott (School of Hospitality, Otago Polytechnic, NZ and Southern Cross University, Australia)

Part Three: Buying and Eating
Editorial Introduction
Food Marketing - Marianne Elisabeth Lien (University of Oslo, Norway) and Eivind Jacobsen (National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO), Oslo, Norway)
Food Retailing - Allan G. Hallsworth (University of Portsmouth, UK)
The Twenty-First Century 'Food Consumer': The Emergence of Consumer Science - Helene Brembeck (Centre for Consumer Science, CFK, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Appetite and Satiety - A Psychobiological Approach - John Blundell, Michelle Dalton, Graham Finlayson (University of Leeds, UK)
Sociology of Food Consumption - Lotte Holm (Copenhagen University, Denmark)
Meals: Eating at Home and 'Eating Out' - Alice Julier (Chatham University, USA)
Drinks: Water, 'Soft' and Alcoholic - Tom Brennan (United States Naval Academy, USA)
Food and Identity - Krishnendu Ray (New York University, USA)

Part Four: Contemporary Issues, Problems and Policy
Editorial Introduction
Hunger and Famine Worldwide - Ellen Messer (Boston University, USA)
The Politics of Food and Nutrition Policies - David F. Smith (University of Aberdeen, UK)
Risk and Trust in the Food Supply - Unni Kjærnes (The National Institute for Consumer Research, Oslo, Norway)
Food (In)security in the Global "North" and "South" - Jane L. Midgley (University of Newcastle, UK)
Food and the Media: Production, Representation and Consumption - Roger Dickinson (University of Leicester, UK)
Eating Disorders and Obesity: Symptoms of a Socially Sanctioned Pathway in the Modern World - Jane Ogden (University of Surrey, UK)
Food Waste - Catherine Alexander (Goldsmiths' College London, UK) Nicky Gregson (University of Sheffield, UK) and Zsuzsa Gille (University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign, USA)

References
Name Index
Subject Index