The History of Bread: From Pre-Historic to Modern Times

Before this book, no comprehensive history of bread existed in the English language. John Ashton set out to correct that omission in 1904, tracing the "Staff of Life" from prehistoric grain cultivation through the great civilizations of the ancient world. Drawing on archaeological evidence from ancient lake-dwelling communities and beyond, Ashton reconstructs the earliest bread-making practices: the primitive tools, the cereals that sustained early humans, and the transformative moment when wild grasses became cultivated crops. He then moves through the ancient world, examining how bread shaped religious ritual, economic systems, and social hierarchies from Egypt to Greece to Rome. What emerges is not merely a catalog of techniques but a meditation on how a humble food became inseparable from the story of human civilization itself.