"Bread and Freedom", a book steeped in history

Benoit Gaboriaud | 12/15/23, 1:14 PM

Specialists in the cultural history of food, Coline Arnaud and Denis Saillard recount a thousand years of history through the prism of bread, in "Pain et liberté. A political history of bread".

"Bread or lead", "Bread or death", "Work and bread"... This essential foodstuff has been at the heart of social demands for millennia, as Coline Arnaud and Denis Saillard point out in their illustrated book "Pain et liberté. A political history of bread".

"The idea was really to createa dialogue between text and images. Usingimages, we focused on 100 historical facts", in which bread played an essential role, explains Denis Saillard. "We started from the observation that the issue of bread is on the rise again. Today, it is at theheart of current events: the disruption of the international grain market caused by the Russian-led war in Ukraine, the classification of the French baguette as a Unesco world intangible cultural heritage, rising flour prices or the French bakers'protests in January 2023."

Bread and women in politics

But these phenomena are not new. Through the prism of bread, Coline Arnaud & Denis Saillard trace the evolution of society from the Middle Ages to the present day. Their short stories are full of flavor. We discover how society has always run on bread. "One of the most striking events was undoubtedly that of October 5, 1789. Encouraged by the crowd, the women of the market, nicknamed the 'poissardes', took the initiative of going to Versailles to fetch the King, Queen and Dauphin and bring them back to Paris. On their way back, they shouted: "We won't be short of bread anymore! We're bringing back the boulanger, the boulangère and the petit mitron! This event was the first sign of women's intervention in politics, and was echoed in the United States. In 1911, women workers in Lawrence demanded "Bread and roses". In six fascinating chronological chapters, Coline Arnaud and Denis Saillard show the extent to which bread crystallizes all possible political issues. A great way to revise history!

▶ "Bread and freedom. A political history of bread" by Coline Arnaud and Denis Saillard. 304 pages, €45. Editions Textuel.

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