Tasting French Terroir

Thomas Parker is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Vassar College. He is the author of Volition, Rhetoric, and Emotion in the Work of Pascal.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Terroir and the Culinary Roots of French Identity 1. Rabelais's Table and the Poets of the Pleiade 2. The Plantification of People 3. Courtside Purity and the Academie Francaise's Attack on the Earth 4. France's Green Evolution: Terroir's Expulsion from Versailles 5. Saint-Evremond and the Invention of Geographical Connoisseurship 6. Terroir and Nation Building: Boulainvilliers, Du Bos, and the Case of Class 7. The Normalization of Terroir: Paris and the Provinces Conclusion: Terroir and Nation: From Geographic Identity to Psychogeography Notes Bibliography Index

"An academic, meticulously researched, attentive journey through to the very complex roots of the concept of terroir ... If you're looking for a book that will both fascinate you and challenge all your preconceptions about terroir, France and the French, this is it." -- Tamlyn Currin JancisRobinson.com "Of great value to researchers ... Highly recommended." CHOICE connect "Admirable... Thomas Parker has greatly increased our understanding of the intellectual origins of terroir." Council for European Studies "This book can help the French to answer a question they sometimes ask about why other cultures and countries have not adopted the notion of terroir, even those who share with France the reality of terroir products." Review of Agricultural & Environmental Studies "Innovative and revealing... This is a wide-ranging, thoroughly researched, and well-articulated work." H-France