Eat, Drink and Be Merry

So, this month we look at a concept in such common usage that few of us actually know either its real meaning or its origins, yet it has be­come the symbol of the ex­cesses of our consumer culture. This is the innocent-sounding scientific unit equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C at 1 atmosphere pressure, aka the calorie. Nick Cullather ex­plains how the development in the late nineteenth century of a technique to measure the calorific value of different foodstuffs not only launched a spaghetti-soup of diet-plans, but had huge implic­ations on the inter­national politics of food supply, and contributed to the rise of American dominance in the interwar era.

Much of the ‘imperialism of the calorie’ as described by Cullather can be seen as fairly benign, but as coca-colonization in a world of limited resources becomes a burning issue for our time, so the excessive consumption of calories – and everything else – be­comes a matter of real concern. Today, excess and vulgarity are incarnated, more fully than anywhere else, in the fleshpots of Las Vegas, and Larry Gragg looks at the origins of this desert oasis of razz­ma­tazz and neon, and discovers that its city fathers had a great line in promotion of their settlement long before the mobsters saw the potential of its loosened purse-strings and looser women.

Not that there is much new under the sun. While Patrick Little’s description of Oliver Cromwell’s refusal of the offer of the crown makes him seem the very model of self-restraint, Christine Riding reminds us that Lon­don – at least as seen through the eyes of William Hogarth – was in the eight­eenth-century world’s premier league for debauchery, human folly and moral decay. His subjects eat, drink, fornicate and fight as if there were no tomorrow. Enjoy!