Research Guides: Food and Nutrition: Books

Find Library Books about Food

Use the Library Catalog search box to find a list of books about food:

Use the drop-down menu to change Keyword to Subject.
Type the phrase food habits OR cookery in the text box.
Click Search.

Also try a keyword search:

Choose Keyword.
Type keywords such as these in the search box: cookery AND Mexico
Click Search.

Write down the call number and location of the books. A library staff member can help you find it.
Can't find a book here? Ask a librarian for help! We can also borrow books from other libraries.

Library Catalog Search

Get Books from Other Libraries

If PCC Library does not own a copy of a book that you need, we can see if another library is able to loan it to you through our interlibrary loan (ILL) service. Just fill out the ILL form as completely as possible. Once the book arrives, we will contact you so that you can pick it up.

Keep in mind...

Cost: FREE!
Libraries do not usually purchase or loan textbooks.
Allow 5-10 business days for processing and delivery.

ILL Form

Summaries for Featured Books

Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture by E. N. Anderson
Call Number: GT 2850 .A6644 2005
Everyone eats, but rarely do we ask why or investigate why we eat what we eat. Why do we love spices, sweets, coffee? How did rice become such a staple food throughout so much of eastern Asia? Everyone Eats examines the social and cultural reasons for our food choices and provides an explanation of the nutritional reasons for why humans eat, resulting in a unique cultural and biological approach to the topic.
Archaeology of Food by Karen Bescherer Metheny (Editor)
Call Number: GN799 .F6 A73 2015 v.1 & 2
What are the origins of agriculture? In what ways have technological advances related to food affected human development? How have food and foodways been used to create identity, communicate meaning, and organize society? In this highly readable, illustrated volume, archaeologists and other scholars from across the globe explore these questions and more.
Precious Cargo: How Food from the Americas Changed the World by David DeWitt
Call Number: GN 407.4 .D48 2014
Precious Cargo tells the fascinating story of how western hemisphere foods conquered the globe and saved it from not only mass starvation, but culinary as well. Focusing heavily American foods--specifically the lowly crops that became commodities, plus one gobbling protein source, the turkey--Dewitt describes how these foreign and often suspect temptations were transported around the world, transforming cuisines and the very fabric of life on the planet.
The Business of Food by H. W. Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: GN 407 .B87 2013
The business of food covers the complexity of the production and consumption of food, in a variety of social and cultural contexts.
Kitchen Literacy: How we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back. by Ann Vileisis
Call Number: TX 645 .V55 2008
Ask children where food comes from, and they'll probably answer: "the supermarket." Ask most adults, and their replies may not be much different. Where our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the sources of our breads, beef, cheeses, cereal, apples, and countless other foods that nourish us every day? Kitchen Literacy takes us from an eighteenth-century garden to today's sleek supermarket aisles, and eventually to farmer's markets that are now enjoying a resurgence. Vileisis chronicles profound changes in how American cooks have considered their foods over two centuries and delivers a powerful statement: what we don't know could hurt us.
Food in Early Modern Europe by Kenneth Albala
Call Number: GT 2853 .E85 A43 2003
Rarely do we read about the roles of food in history. Yet its study offers us a humanizing look at those who lived before us. This unique book examines food's importance during the massive evolution of Europe following the Middle Ages. This book answers such questions as: Why did people toil and travel for certain foods, such as spices, when they were already surrounded by an abundance of edible plants at home? How did foods fit in the ritual life of the ordinary villager? Why were people expected to avoid meat for long periods? Why were nobles and peasants expected to eat different food than the lower classes?