Food and drink have provided fascinating insights into cultural patterns in consumer societies. There is an intimate relationship between food and identity but processes of identity formation through food are far from clear. This book addresses the place of food in the construction of identities: is food central or marginal to this process? Does food equally matter for all groups? Why would, in people's experience, food become important at one moment, or, on the contrary, lose its significance?

The book is also concerned with the origin of food habits. Contributors investigate how, when, why and by whom cooking, eating and drinking were used as a means of distinction. Leading historians and sociologists look at concepts of authenticity, adjustment and invention, as well as food signs and codes, and ask why they are accepted or rejected. They examine a wide range of periods and topics: old people, alcohol and identity in Early Modern Europe; food riots and national identity; noble families, eating and drinking in eighteenth century Spain; consumption and the working class in the nineteenth century; the meaning of Champagne in Belle-Époque France; the narrative of food in Norway; wine and bread in French Algeria; food and identity in post-war Germany.

This intriguing book offers new, comparative insights into the role of food in the construction of identity.

Author Biography: Peter Scholliers is Lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.