Books & ideas

Roman menus

Kevin Bouillot — 2026-03-24T08:00:00Z

Ancient Roman diets were based on health concerns as well as moral and political considerations. Frugality and pleasure were not mutually exclusive. Eating was about more than filling one's stomach.

Virtuoso Fasting

Zoé Boucherie — 2025-10-30T07:30:00Z

At a time of increasing appeals for moderation and lifestyles more respectful of nature, a new book proposes an original approach: to use the concept of asceticism to grasp practices of voluntary renunciation as a kind of spiritual experience.

Living Frugally

Camille Robert-Boeuf — 2025-10-21T11:00:00Z

Drawing on the resources of ethno-accounting, Geneviève Pruvost conducts a fascinating investigation into “alternative” lifestyles in rural areas.

The Vegetable Garden of Eden

Ariel Suhamy — 2025-01-09T07:30:00Z

The question of original sin no longer concerns us as much as that of diet. But what if it were the same?

Let's Get This Bread

Michael C. Behrent & Jean Bérard — 2023-10-26T07:30:00Z

Alessandro Stanziani recounts the long story of how agriculture embraced capitalism and productivism, from the transformation of seeds and species to producers' farms, by way of peasant expropriation and the chemistry of fertilizers and pesticides.

In the Land of Vegetarians

Mathieu Ferry — 2018-07-05T07:00:00Z

In India, the ban on meat-based diets is still linked to an obligation of ritual purity for high castes – but not solely. As the geographer Michaël Bruckert explains, in modern-day India the consumption of meat structures the social, cultural and economic space of the sub-continent.

Humanity and Butchery

Coline Salaris — 2018-06-25T07:00:00Z

At a time when animal suffering is being denounced with increasing force and meatless diets are becoming more common, how can we explain the continued existence of a carnivorous humanity that is neither natural nor rational?

The Substance of Modernity

2015-02-26T06:30:00Z

Emma Spary's new book Feeding France explores the rise of the food expert as public figure from the eighteenth century onwards, considering in particular the life-story of Antoine Parmentier, who introduced the potato into the country. The history of food consumption trends, which remains largely unexplored, tells a tale of persuasion, food crises and controversy.

Alternative Foods, Activism and Strawberries in California

Thomas Grillot & Nicolas Larchet — 2015-02-10T06:00:00Z

Are alternative food movements the panacea for obesity, food-induced health problems and, simply, bad food? One doesn't need to be a reactionary to see the limits of the proposal, but we still have a hard time relinquishing that belief. Julie Guthman, whose work almost single-handedly launched scientific inquiry into those questions, helps us understand why.

Let's eat! Food and the social sciences

Thomas Grillot & Nicolas Larchet — 2015-02-09T06:30:00Z

Food is now a conspicuous topic, from culinary blogs to magazines, diet books, TV shows and contests. Yet unbeknownst to many, it often holds an underground, clandestine place in some of social science's major works. This dossier assesses the current importance of such scholarly endeavors, known as “food studies” in the United States.