A Cultural History of Plants – 6 Volume Set

Winner of the 2022 Society of Economic Botany’s Daniel F. Austin Award

A Cultural History of Plants presents a global exploration of how plants have shaped human culture. Covering the last 12,000 years, it is the definitive history of how we have cultivated, traded, classified, and altered plants and how, in turn, plants have influenced our ideas of luxury and wealth, health and well-being, art and architecture.

The six volumes cover: 1 – Antiquity (10,000 BCE to 500 CE); 2 – Post-Classical Era (500 to 1400); 3 – Early Modern Era (1400 to 1650); 4 – the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1650 to 1800); 5 – the Nineteenth Century(1800 to 1920); 6 – Modern Era (1920 to the present).

Each volume is also available to purchase individually: please view the whole The Cultural Histories Series here or use the links in the contents list below.

Chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The themes (and chapter titles) are: Plants as Staple Foods; Plants as Luxury Foods; Trade and Exploration; Plant Technology and Science; Plants and Medicine; Plants in Culture; Plants as Natural Ornaments; The Representation of Plants.

Contents:

Volume 1: A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity
Edited by Annette Giesecke, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Series Preface
List of Illustrations

Introduction: Plants and Culture in Antiquity, Annette Giesecke
1. Plants as Staple Foods, Jennifer Ramsay, Sarah Walshaw, and Karla Hansen-Speer
2. Plants as Luxury Foods: Sweet Herbs for Curry, Andrew Dalby
3. Trade & Exploration, Laurence M.V. Totelin
4. Plant Technology & Science, Patrick Hunt
5. Plants & Medicine, Alain Touwaide
6. Plants in Culture: Botanic Symbols in Daily Life and Literature, Annette Giesecke and Mechthild Siede
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments, Kaja Tally-Schumacher
8. The Representation of Plants, Allison Thomason, Joanna Day, and Annette Giesecke
Endnotes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Volume 2: A Cultural History of Plants in the Post-Classical Era
Edited by Alain Touwaide, Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, Washington, DC, USA
Series Preface
List of Figures

Introduction, Alain Touwaide
1. Plants as Staple Foods, Melitta Weiss Adamson
2. Plants as Luxury Foods, Alain Touwaide
3. Trade and Exploration, Federica Rotelli
4. Plant Technology and Science: Perception and use of plants in China, Huaiyu Chen
5. Plants and Medicine, Iolanda Ventura, Tony Hunt, Johannes Gottfried Mayer
6. Plants in Culture, Divya Kumar-Dumas
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments. Pre-modern Iranian and Eastern-Islamic Lands, Yves Porter
8. The Representations of Plants: Mediators of Body and Soul, Sarah Kyle
Endnotes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Volume 3: A Cultural History of Plants in the Early Modern Era
Edited by Andrew Dalby, independent scholar, France & Annette Giesecke, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Series Preface
List of Figures
Editors’ Note

Introduction: “I am sorry to say that I do not recognise them”, Andrew Dalby and Annette Giesecke
1. Plants as Staple Foods: Europe in the Post-Classical Era, Malcolm Thick
2. Plants as Luxury Foods: “And they germinated very well”, Andrew Dalby
3. Trade and Exploration: Plant Hunting 1450-1650, David Marsh
4. Plant Technology and Science: Frondi tenere e belle, Ingrid D. Rowland
5. Plants and Medicine, Florike Egmond
6. Plants in Culture, Luke Morgan and Elizabeth Hyde
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments, Jill Francis
8. The Representation of Plants: More than Just a Pretty Face?, Gillian Riley
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Volume 4: A Cultural History of Plants in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Edited by Jennifer Milam, University of Newcastle, Australia
Series Preface
List of Illustrations

Introduction: Plants and Culture during the Enlightenment, Jennifer Milam and Garritt Van Dyk
1. Plants as Staple Foods, Jane Levi
2. Plants as Luxury Foods, Garritt Van Dyk
3. Trade & Exploration, Sarah Easterby-Smith
4. Plant Technology & Science, Alexandra Cook
5. Plants & Medicine, Clare Griffin
6. Plants in Culture, Stephen Bending
7. Plants as Natural Ornament, Mark Laird
8. The Representation of Plants, Ekaterina Heath and Jennifer Milam
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors

Volume 5: A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century
Edited by David Mabberley, University of Oxford, UK
Series Preface
List of Figures

Introduction, David Mabberley
1. Plants as Staple Foods, Claudia Ciotir
2. Plants as Luxury Foods, Patrick Hunt
3. Trade and Exploration, Mark Nesbitt
4. Plant Technology and Science, Anne Osbourn
5. Plants and Medicine, Monique Simmonds
6. Plants in Culture, Roy Vickery
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments, Clemens Alexander Wimmer
8. The Representation of Plants, H. Walter Lack
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Volume 6: A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era
Edited by Stephen Forbes, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Australia
Series Preface
List of Illustrations

Introduction: Plants and Culture, Stephen Forbes
1. Plants as Staple Foods: Feast and Famine in Global Food Systems, Derek Byerlee
2. Plants as Luxury Foods: Affordability in an Environmentally Uncertain Future, Frederica Bowcutt
3. Trade and Exploration: The Impact on Plant Diversity, Sara Oldfield
4. Plant Technology and Science: Advances in Crop Improvement, Peter Langridge and Geoff Fincher
5. Plants and Medicine: From Imperial Divergence to Global Convergence, Jean-Paul Gaudilliere
6. Plants in Culture, Mark Tredinnick and Stephen Forbes
7. Plants as Natural Ornaments, Kate Cullity, Stephen Forbes, Jen Lynch & Mike Maunder
8. The Representation of Plants, Geoff Bil
Endnotes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index