Soup Through the Ages : A Culinary History with Period Recipes.

In Soup through the Ages, food historian Rumble presents an overview of the history of soup and its role in cuisine development. The book contains two main sections, "The Old World," which discusses soup histories in non-American lands, and "The New World," which addresses American soup development. Though this work is well researched with extensive chapter notes and a bibliography, it suffers from a lack of narrative cohesion. Each chapter reads as a series of slightly elaborated soup factoids, yielding an assemblage of information rather than a culinary history. Additionally, most chapters are very short and do not provide enough detail to give readers a sense of the historical value of the subject. Lastly, the final chapter, "Soup as a Weapon," briefly chronicles soup's role in poisoning and other nefarious activities, which is an odd note on which to conclude the work. The most interesting parts of this book are the appendixes, notably "Period Soup Vegetables and Herbs" and "Period Recipes." Readers interested in this topic would be better served by reading general food history overviews or the food history of a particular culture or region. Summing Up: Not recommended. S. C. Hardesty Georgia State University