"Standage succeeds in underscoring the crucial role that food continues to play in our lives." - Washington Post

"The emphasis on food as a cultural catalyst differentiates Standage from Michael Pollan. With Standage...it's not just one food lifting and guiding history, but what Adam Smith might have called the "invisible fork" of food economics." - New Scientist

"Standage's examples are pretty powerful: In his view of the world, the British lost the Revolutionary War in large part because they failed to provide adequate food for their troops; the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 because the regime could not feed its people; and the reason we say someone is a family's "breadwinner" is because of food's practically ancient association with wealth." - Gourmet

"An extraordinary and well-told story, a much neglected dimension of history." - Financial Times

"Cogent, informative and insightful. An intense briefing on the making of our world from the vantage point of food history." - Kirkus