Miscellaneous Breads

A journeyman baker had to be strong to do the work and dumb to embrace a profession that more often than not broke his health, left him both infirm and impecunious, or killed him prematurely. They were highly susceptible to a startling array of serious maladies … ranging from a chronic bronchial cold to pleurisy, pneumonia, asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis. Strenuous toil produced hernias, ulcers, and varicose veins. The stress and strain of arduous exertion performed through every night and part of every day was said to have generated grave “nervous” disorders. Their work made bakery workers characteristically “misanthropic,” “morose,” and “very unstable.” Those who remained in the bakery were said to die typically between the ages of forty and fifty as a result of exhaustion, disease, or dissipation….

—Steven Kaplan, from The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question: 1700–1775