Books: How Italian Food Conquered The World

Did you know that many Americans in the early 1960’s had never tasted pizza? And that Caffe Moretti in New York City in the 1850’s was America’s first Italian restaurant? And one more fact__before Columbus “discovered” America, Italy had never saw a tomato or even a potato. And get this__ the word spaghetti never even appeared in Italy before 1939. Wasn’t Mussolini in charge back then? Hmm. Well the food and wine reporter at Esquire magazine has set out to set the record straight about the history of Italian food in his new book, How Italian Food Conquered The World. And frankly to moi, an Italian, I was shocked and my hot Italian blood was set to boiling. But in a nice way I think because Mariani’s book is an interesting and enlightening look at what food historian’s consider to be one of the seminal cuisines of the world. However the book does falter a bit. Mariani shows he knows not the historical method. Consider this statement: “There was no Italian food before there was an Italy, that is until King Victor Emmanuel II unified the boot’s city-states, provinces, princedoms, principalities and regions in 1861. Before that, nothing except perhaps the language could properly be termed Italian.” Really? Hmm.. a simplistic distillation of Italian history. I fell over in my chair. A lot of stuff happened between the barbarian invasions of Rome and the reunification of Italy (But that is another story). So right from the start I was wary of Mr. Mariani. Maybe he meant to have said that Italian food had regional differences, much the same that you would find regional differences in the US. But too “boil down” 1000 years of Italian history into a simplistic recipe to fit the turn of a sentence__well that gave me agita (from the Italian agitare to agitate and when applied to the stomach it means lots of acid and indigestion). Italian food is taken very seriously by Italians, so much so that the Universita’ degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata offers a Master’s degree in the history of Italian Food and Gastronomy. I not so sure its graduates would agree with Mr Mariani’s assertions. Even so I did like this book. Go figure? Why? The historical antidotes that Mariani has compiled are fascinating and his survey of some of today’s trendy Italian restaurants can serve as a guide for those who can afford.

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Books: Marathon: The Battle That Changed Western Civilization

Marathon(490 BC) may well have been the battle that saved Western civilization__a “decisive battle, “ as historians used to call them. These battles are so important that they often change the course of history. An example of a decisive battle in relatively modern history would be Waterloo or the invasion of Normandy in WWII. Decisive battles are somewhat out of fashion today. Think of the many recent battles that have decided nothing except perhaps a local skirmish. Why is that? Well that’s a discussion of political will and empire building that is beyond the purview of a librarian. However, getting back on track, herein lies the main point of the recently published book by Richard Billows, Marathon: The Battle That Changed Western Civilization.” The title pretty much tells the tale. Well almost, Billows book is much more than an elaborate essay to prove his “decisive battle” point. After the introduction Billow’s spends about 150 pages discussing the reasons for the Persian invasion. In these introductory pages the readers gets a history of Greece, a history of the Persian Empire, a background on Athenian society, and the reasons for the Ionian revolt against the Persians. It is not until Chapter five that Billows returns to a detailed discussion of the battle itself. Then in chapter six he discuses the aftermath of the battle and the changes it caused. In Billows opinion, which is mostly likely correct, a defeat at Marathon at the hands of the Persians would have meant that the intellectual achievements of Western Civilization, such as, democracy, the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, the plays of Aristophanes and the History of Thucydides' would have never occurred. Western civilization would fundamentally be different place. Now that was a battle. And Billows does a fine job explaining it. It’s interesting to speculate what would the founders of later democracies including American’s founding fathers have used for a model? Recommended.

Art: Greek Vase From About the Time Of The Battle of Marathon (500 BC)

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The lightly armored librarian of the future.

BOOKS: The Spartacus Wars

Taking advantage of my streaming Netflix membership, I recently watched the Starz mini-series Spartacus Blood and Sand. Well__ the bodies are certainly buff, but historical accuracy is certainly lean. Actually Roman gladiators were probably more akin to Sumo wrestlers. The men wear loincloths and the women wear curtains__sometimes. The show should have been called: Spartacus: Gratuitous Rex. When I saw the title of the series it sparked my interest because I had recently read, Barry Strauss’ book, The Spartacus War. Anyone who has read the book will know that not much is really known about Mr. Sparatcus. Strauss even apologizes for the lack of reliable primary sources about his subject matter and does his best to piece things together. What we do know for sure was that Spartacus was a Balkin slave turned gladiator who led a slave rebellion in 73BC armed with kitchen utensils. Yes__ that’s how it started with pots and pans. The Romans didn’t give weapons to their slaves you see. Apparently big things can be a brewin’ in the kitchen because Spartacus and his 700 warriors and 60,000 followers beat the stuffing out of several Roman Legions until he meet his match in the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus who killed him dead. Spartacus’ body was never found, unlike the Kirk Douglas movie where he is crucified. The ironic thing about this story is that Crassus’ rival Pompey stole his victory by sending a letter to the Roman Senate saying that Cassius had merely defeated a bunch of slaves and he Pompey had actually put down the rebellion, know historically as the Third Servile War. Here in attests to the fact that what went on in the Roman Senate was often much more interesting then what went on in the batttle field. But getting back to Strauss’ book, he does do a nice job at portraying the political and social milieu of Italy during the late Republic and the permanent mark that the Spartacus left on the Roman psyche. Read the book first then watch the series for dessert.