The Library
Potatoes, populations, and states
Tools
Tools
Tools
Earle, Rebecca (2021) Potatoes, populations, and states. Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19 (2). pp. 393-417. doi:10.1353/eam.2021.0013
|
PDF
WRAP-potatoes-populations-states-Earle-2021.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (15Mb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/eam.2021.0013
Abstract
Today, dietary guidelines, healthy-eating pyramids, and other nutritional advice are a familiar and expected feature of governance. It was not always so. What we eat has not always been of such interest to the state. That people ate was of course very important; since ancient times rulers have feared the disruptive effects of famine. The minutiae of what ordinary folk ate, in contrast, was rarely considered an important component of statecraft. Over the course of the eighteenth century, however, the diet of working people acquired an unprecedented importance within European notions of statecraft, because of its perceived capacity to foster or impede the development of a higher-quality population. This article reviews these developments, to show how during the Enlightenment, everyday eating habits acquired political relevance. Although scholars often identify the twentieth century as the period when food became an object of governance, food's important instrument of modern statecraft has a much longer history.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor S Agriculture > SB Plant culture |
||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Potatoes, Potatoes -- History -- Europe -- 18th century, Food habits -- Sociological aspects -- Europe -- 18th century, Food supply -- Political aspects -- Europe -- 18th century, Agriculture and state -- Europe -- 18th century, Food supply -- Government policy -- Europe -- 18th century | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal | ||||||
| Publisher: | University of Pennsylvania Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1559-0895 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 4 May 2021 | ||||||
| Dates: |
|
||||||
| Volume: | 19 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 393-417 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1353/eam.2021.0013 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112." | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
