Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History

Bread's history has frequently been a recipe for disaster. The well-baked loaf--aside from being the main event in one of the major food groups--has caused wars, supernatural visions, festivals, and plagues. H. E. Jacob's celebratory book toasts bread from its earliest beginnings in Egypt, where it was one of the treasures entombed with the dead, to the author's own experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, where a bread made of sawdust kept him alive. The maker of paupers and kings, our daily bread and its evolutions are deliciously described in this illuminating text.