Mamaliga, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely been told. Alex Drace-Francis surveys the arrival and spread of maize cultivation in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, and also the image of mamaliga in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and with many new findings, Drace-Francis shows how the making of mamaliga has been shaped by global economic forces and overlapping imperial systems of war and trade.

The story of maize and mamaliga provides an accessible way to revisit many key questions of Romanian and broader regional history. More generally, the book links the history of production, consumption, and representation. Analyses of recipes, literary and popular depictions, and key vocabulary complete the work.

About the Author
Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam.

Reviews

"a richly textured and fresh approach to the history of eighteenth-nineteenth century Romania through the lens of maize and the Romanian "national" dish mamaliga (boiled cornmeal). Much more than a food history, The Making of Mamaliga is a holistic commodity history that reveals the overlapping "imperial tectonics" of the three empires that dominated east central Europe-the Russian, Ottoman, Habsburg-with Romania uniquely situated at the confluence of all three."

-- Mary Neuburger * Slavic Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9789633865835
Author Alex Drace-Francis
Format Hardback
Page Count 226
Imprint Central European University Press
Publisher Central European University Press
Weight(grams) 474g