Short Synopsis
In The Taste of Empire, Lizzie Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.

Full Synopsis
In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through twenty meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.

In The Taste of Empire, Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.

"This is a wholly pleasing book, which offers a tasty side dish to anyone exploring the narrative history of the British Empire." ---Max Hastings, Sunday Times (UK)

"An original and thought-provoking book and for all the shocking accounts of the consequences of British appetites, a highly entertaining one." ---The Times (UK)

"This is a marvelously wide-ranging and readable book, stuffed with engaging details and startling connections." ---Financial Times

"I was dazzled by Collingham's writing and her book also left me very hungry." ---Bee Wilson, author of First Bite

"Absorbing and utterly readable" ---Michael Pye, author of The Edge of the World