Beef and liberty
"Eating meat recalls ancient beliefs about the empowering qualities of raw red blood. It is a manly food, fit for fighting men. But why have the English always identified so particularly with beef and bulls and how did the French come to christen them les rosbifs? In this book Ben Rogers follows a linked set of icons - roast beef and suet puddings, John Bull and the bulldog, butchers and Beefeaters - showing how these came to define plain Protestant Englishness against a vision of corrupt, effeminate, frog-eating Catholic Europe." "His tale is rich in vivid historical detail; from the use of the roasting jack to the foundation of the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks which still meets in London today, from the origins of English mustard to the banning of bull-baiting in 1827. Resonant and funny, illustrated throughout with prints and drawings, including famous works by Hogarth and Gillray, Beef and Liberty is a feast to relish, an entirely original history, and a pioneering study in a new subject - food nationalism."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, 2003
Chatto & Windus, London, 2003