The audiobook contains the course lectures; the PDF is the course guide / summary.

Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."

In fact, civilization itself began in the quest for food. Humanity's transition to agriculture was not only the greatest social revolution in history, but it directly produced the structures and institutions we call "civilization."

In 36 fascinating lectures, award-winning Professor Albala puts this extraordinary subject on the table, taking you on an enthralling journey into the human relationship to food. With this innovative course, you'll travel the world discovering fascinating food lore and culture of all regions and eras - as an eye-opening lesson in history as well as a unique window on what we eat today.

Contents:

1. Hunting, Gathering, and Stone Age Cooking
2. What Early Agriculturalists Ate
3. Egypt and the Gift of the Nile
4. Ancient Judea—From Eden to Kosher Laws
5. Classical Greece—Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade
6. The Alexandrian Exchange and the Four Humors
7. Ancient India—Sacred Cows and Ayurveda
8. Yin and Yang of Classical Chinese Cuisine
9. Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome
10. Early Christianity—Food Rituals and Asceticism
11. Europe’s Dark Ages and Charlemagne
12. Islam—A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking
13. Carnival in the High Middle Ages
14. International Gothic Cuisine
15. A Renaissance in the Kitchen
16. Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking
17. 1492—Globalization and Fusion Cuisines
18. 16th-Century Manners and Reformation Diets
19. Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age
20. The Birth of French Haute Cuisine
21. Elizabethan England, Puritans, Country Food
22. Dutch Treat—Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Tobacco
23. African and Aboriginal Cuisines
24. Edo, Japan—Samurai Dining and Zen Aesthetics
25. Colonial Cookery in North America
26. Eating in the Early Industrial Revolution
27. Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians
28. First Restaurants, Chefs, and Gastronomy
29. Big Business and the Homogenization of Food
30. Food Imperialism around the World
31. Immigrant Cuisines and Ethnic Restaurants
32. War, Nutritionism, and the Great Depression
33. World War II and the Advent of Fast Food
34. Counterculture—From Hippies to Foodies
35. Science of New Dishes and New Organisms
36. The Past as Prologue?