Academic-Oriented Food Series

Although scholarly studies of food were nothing new at the end of the twentieth century, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and academics in many other disciplines had produced classic works long before this time, it was only with the sudden explosive interest in food studies that monograph series were launched by both university and trade publishers. The advantage of these series was that individual titles would no longer be lost among books listed in catalogs by specific topic, time period, or discipline. Scholars interested in food could see all similar works in one place, and the notoriety of these series served as a catalyst to food scholarship overall. In a sense, the appearance of these series among university presses also signaled the long overdue legitimization of food as a serious topic of inquiry. Scholars no longer had to defend their research choices when they could show the backing of powerful university presses. Nonetheless, the directors of these publishing houses were still quietly apologizing or explaining why they needed food titles to generate revenue that would support other publications on less popular topics. But this generation of academics was the first to self-identify as food scholars, often engaged in interdisciplinary research. This coincided with the appearance of food studies programs and journals devoted to food. Both Food and Foodways and Food, Culture and Society (originally the Journal for the Study of Food and Society) originated in the mid-1980s. The British culinary history–oriented journal Petits Propos Culinaires, published by Prospect Books, dates back to 1980.