Why is food at the origin of the common goods of humanity? How did the powerful, with the rituals of the table and the food policies, manage to build the (in)equality of humans? Who, after forcing the people to eat bread, wanted to forbid them chestnuts and generalize the potato?Beyond the social, religious and cultural history of food, the author traces its political history, never before treated. This fabulous book by Paul Ariès is the result of thirty years of teaching and research. It shows how the French table remains largely dependent on past tables. You will know (almost) everything about what our ancestors ate and drank, from prehistory to the present day.