Did you know that spoons were invented in the stone age? That books of manners in the Middle Ages taught people to wipe their greasy fingers on the tablecloth? That in 1669 Louis XIV decreed table knives should have rounded ends, because people were using their dinner knives as weapons and there'd been too many stabbings?
Pat Lauber tours history from the stone age to the present, exploring the development of knives, spoons, forks, and table manners with a few detours to examine chopsticks and other non-Western methods of eating on the way. Her lively, lighthearted style is complemented by John Manders's cartoony art, making this nonfiction that's fun, fascinating, and accessible.
