What's the Use of Multidisciplinary Approaches? Food History Writing on Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe

Recent discussions on specialized e-lists question the position of food studies as a distinct discipline. Some argue the necessity to become independent from whatever discipline, to expand beyond/above history, sociology, ethnology et cetera. Others claim that “food” should best be firmly situated within just these traditions. This paper looks at approaches, sources, influences, methodologies and practitioners appearing in the food historiography on Europe since the late 18^th century It briefly surveys scopes, approaches, methods and sources of food history up to the 1950s, and focuses on “history-from-below” approaches in Europe of the 1960s. It will particularly deal with the cultural turn of the 1990s (influences, significance, confrontations, results), and it will look at possible future trends. Although food studies cannot do without the multidisciplinary input, they cannot and should not leave familiar disciplinary grounds: food studies may simply form the core of innovation (in terms of methods, scopes, source material et cetera) in each discipline.