Rachel Laudan

Primitive tools do not need to imply primitive results.  exquisitely carved objects and elegant painting by societies tens of thousands of years before the invention of grain agriculture attest to the essentially unlimited possibilities for bread making in the context of the earliest gatherers of grains. This from William Rubel’s new little book, Bread: A [...]

Note. If you’ve been to this page before, I’ve now (pm 5 december) edited the figures. Many thanks Larry.   I’ve just been reading E.A. Wrigley‘s Energy and the English Industrial Revolution which I highly recommend if you are interested in the transformation wrought by fossil fuels. In passing, he gives these figures for the [...]

Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard’s father and head art teacher at the Sir Jamsetje Jeejeboy College of Art in Bombay, founded by the epynonymous Indian benefactor, reflects on the Indian peasant diet. The succulent [literally juicy from the Latin succus] food of the West, rich and full of flavour, is eaten with a closed mouth, while appreciative [...]