Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination

This is a wonderful book that tells you why the medievil people expended so much energy and adventure to pecure spices. Reading the menues and seeing how the spelling has changed was great. There was also the sadness that came over me when I realized how many of the birds, animals and fish that the population were able to eat that are now extinct. This bookwas a wonderful refresher to remember the richness of the medievil people.

This is one of the best cross-over books (appealing to both academic and lay audiences) that I've ever read. It unobtrusively explodes many myths about the "unsophisticated" Middle Ages while providing a well informed picture of medieval food and economic practices. It is a genuine pleasure to read. Freedman is an engaging writer who never wastes his reader's time (no academic jargon here). A wonderful book. A little quibble: Why is his name listed as "Professor Paul Freedman"? Yes, he is a professor, but so are many authors, and that professional fact does not usually get registered as part of an author's name; this makes it sound like his first name is "Professor."

This is a learned book, and a pleasure to read. Freedman succeeds admirably in describing and explaining Medieval Europe's passion for spices. But the most interesting part of the book is his analysis of Europe's voyages all over the world to obtain spices for domestic consumption. It's an ambitious project, and he pulls it off in a style that is lucid and also fun. I also very much enjoyed another book on food that Freedman recently edited, "Food: The History of Taste" (University of California Press, 2007). The essays in the book are consistently insightful and entertaining. Here's to more academic work on the history of food!

Professor Freedman examines Medieval Europe and its metamorphosis into Modern Europe from the perspective of spices...as condiments, as medicine, as perfumes, and as stimulants to world exploration. This fascinating book provides some novel historical perspectives - Genghis Khan as a facilitator of European travel to East Asia, for example. Its description of medieval cuisine will surprise most readers by how very unfamiliar medieval taste would be to contemporary Europeans. This is a very enjoyable read. I recommend it highly.