Tony Soprano's fear of meat has a long history. The simple act of tasting chocolate in the eighteenth century has class and racial overtones. Wall's book will look at a dozen or so foods, implements, and practices to assemble a broad picture of how food and dining have come to mean what they mean today. Part literary history, part anthropology, part popular culture study, "Reading Food "is an informative and readable addition to the literature on what we eat.