An Edible History of Humanity

Tom Standage is a British journalist and author. Born in 1969, Standage grew up in South East London and studied engineering and computing at Oxford University. Standage began working for The Economist in 1998 as a science correspondent and is now deputy director of the newspaper. He has also written for several other publications, such as the New York Times, Wired, and The Guardian. In addition to An Edible History of Humanity, Standage has written seven books, including The Victorian Internet (1998) and A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005).

Much of Standage’s writing utilizes a microhistorical approach—centering on one aspect or one point in history and exploring it in full. Standage’s first work, The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting (2001), describes how astronomer Urbain Le Verrier and mathematician John Couch Adams calculated the existence of Neptune. The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine (2003) tells the true story of a mechanical man called “The Turk” that was engineered using clockwork techniques. The 18th-century nobleman Baron Wolfgang von Kempelin created the mechanical man, dubbing it “The Turk,” and traveled with it across Europe while challenging people to best it at chess. The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers (2014) draws a comparison between the modern internet and the invention of the telegraph. Standage shows how the rapid development and the global impact of the telegraph mirrored what would happen with the internet later. Each of these works has a narrow focus, following a single occurrence or idea.

However, Standage’s other works take a broader lens. An Edible History of Humanity applies a macrohistorical approach to the relationship between agriculture and society. Standage traces humans’ interactions with food and plants from early farming to modern life. A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2006) tells the history of beverages and alcohol through glassware, from the teapot to the Coca Cola bottle. Each new glass or drink reflects its time and the changes it brought to society. A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next (2021) takes a closer look at the evolution of transport. Like the other two books in this macrohistorical collection, Standage’s work on motion reveals the way incremental innovations lead to major societal shifts. These works take on the monumental task of following the evolution of human life through history, revealing how webs of influence work together.

Many of Standage’s works have centered on the past, but he also focuses on the future. Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First 2,000 Years (2014) argues that social media has always existed as a part of human life and asks questions about what this form of communication will look like in the future. In 2005, Standage published The Future of Technology, a collection of essays and articles from his contributions to The Economist. Standage’s collected works reveal that his main preoccupation is human life. He seeks to understand where people have been and where they are going by unpacking the minute details that rule their lives: what they eat, what they drink, how they move from one place to the next, how they communicate, etc. For the British author, the mundane and insignificant hold the secrets of human history and future.