Spanning over half a million years, this lively account describes the world history of food and the way in which food has influenced the whole course of human development. Full of intriguing information and insights, it reveals how pepper contributed to the fall of the Roman empire; how a new kind of plough helped to spark off the Crusades; why the cow became sacred in India; why stir-fry cooking was invented; how the turkey got its name. This book confirms that food is still, as it always has been, not only inseperable from the history of the human race but essential to it.