Food in Nineteenth-Century British History

Volume 4 examines the British diet from its colonial and global perspectives.

Colonialism, combined with rapidly improving global transport networks, introduced the British to a plethora of unfamiliar foods from overseas. Changing economic trading patterns also impacted massively on the changing British diet. Emigration (inwards and outwards), and military service, further encouraged a global inter-mingling of diets and palates.

The British stomach was introduced to new spices and herbs, either at home or abroad, although fears persisted that the British constitution was ill-suited to rich, foreign foods. A selection of sources will bring to life how the increasingly globalised world changed British eating habits, while introducing readers to the many debates surrounding this transition.