Preston, United Kingdom
Food and drink are essentials - yet they also represent luxuries. We must eat to live, sometimes may live to eat, and alcoholic drink can be seen either as a blessing which enlivens existence or a curse which destroys it. One defines oneself not only by what one chooses (or is able) to consume, but by one's attitude to it or even one's control over such commodities. This conference seeks to explore the significance of food and drink, in its widest sense, in a variety of historical contexts.
From agrarian production to their commercial promotion, from the effects of famine and shortages to the promotion of healthy eating for national social and economic benefits, food and drink are key aspects of social and political history. The cultural significance of certain foods, drinks, and patterns of consumption can lead us to examine popular movements and power relationships in various periods. Food and drink can operate as powerful signifiers of class, region and gender as well as nationality and subjugation. Concerns about adulteration and intoxication reveal interesting fault lines in social ‘contracts', and movements to control production and consumption can be read as restrictive or emancipatory. Food and drink - the provision, choice, use, restriction or lack of them - provide a fascinating focus for historical inquiry.
It will of interest to social, political and cultural historians who wish to discuss attitudes to consumption, patterns of production, or the many other aspects of food and drink as they are important to our histories.
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