Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England[a] is an 1898 book by Charles W. Forward, published by The Ideal Publishing Union and the Vegetarian Society. Based on a series of articles Forward published in The Vegetarian Review in 1897, it surveys vegetarian ideas from classical antiquity through the Romantic and Victorian eras, and traces the British vegetarian movement from the founding of the Vegetarian Society in 1847 to the end of 1897, with brief discussion of related activity in the United States and Germany. The book includes over 200 illustrations, including portraits and photographs of people, places, and events associated with the movement. Later bibliographers and historians have described it as a key source for subsequent accounts of the British vegetarian movement and as one of the best sources of early photographs of the movement and its participants.
In January 1897, to mark the VS jubilee, Forward published a series of articles in The Vegetarian Review on the history of the movement. The book Fifty Years of Food Reform, published the following year, was based on those articles.[3] According to James Gregory, the Vegetarian Society objected to chapter 12 and asked for its name to be removed from the book edition.[4]
Chien-Hui Li writes that Howard Williams's The Ethics of Diet (1883), which includes biographical entries on nearly 60 historical figures associated with vegetarian ideas, served as a foundation for later histories of the movement, including Forward's.[3]
Content
My endeavour has been to make this volume complete as a history and compendium of information for the student of the movement, rather than to write it with special regard to its literary value.
Forward then traces the British vegetarian movement from the founding meeting at Northwood Villa, Ramsgate, on 30 September 1847 through to the end of 1897, covering the Vegetarian Society's early organisation and leading figures, its annual meetings, membership and finances, and later disputes over whether the movement should promote dietary abstinence alone or a wider reform platform. He discusses vegetarian literature and restaurants, and devotes chapters to the revival of organised vegetarianism in London and related bodies, including the National Food Reform Society, the London Vegetarian Society and the Vegetarian Cycling and Rambling Club, as well as the Vegetarian Federal Union and local societies; he also includes an appendix on the Battle Creek Sanitarium and John Harvey Kellogg. Parallel movements in the United States and Germany are treated briefly, including the 1893 Vegetarian Congress in Chicago.[6]
The book contains over 200 illustrations, largely portraits of figures associated with the vegetarian movement, alongside group photographs and views of relevant places and events. The index includes images of delegates at the Vegetarian Congress at Brighton (1894) and at the World's Fair in Chicago (1893), views of Northwood Villa at Ramsgate (exterior and interior), a map and views of vegetarian restaurants in London, and a photograph of a vegetarian dinner at the Holborn Restaurant (1897). It also lists illustrations relating to vegetarian and health reform outside Britain, including the Vegetarian Federal Union stall at the World's Fair, John Harvey Kellogg's sanitarium in Michigan, Russell Thacher Trall's water-cure establishment in the United States, and Shaker communities in the United States.[2]:191–192
Reception
A review in The Animals' Friend described Fifty Years of Food Reform as a "handsomely bound historical survey" and praised the amount of research and detail in the work, which it said showed the author's "zeal and devotion". The review also drew attention to the book's "upwards of 200 illustrations", particularly its many portraits of figures associated with the movement, and recommended the volume to readers sympathetic to vegetarianism and humanitarian reform.[7]
Legacy
Charles Magel included Fifty Years of Food Reform in his 1989 bibliography of animal rights, Keyguide to Information Sources in Animal Rights.[5]
In History of Vegetarianism and Veganism Worldwide (1430 BCE to 1969), Akiko Aoyagi and William Shurtleff describe it as the "best, most comprehensive general history of vegetarianism up to this time" and one of the best sources of historical photographs of the movement.[6]
James Gregory calls Fifty Years of Food Reform "a key source and framework for subsequent treatment of the movement", and considers it a largely accurate history, with some minor problems stemming from its origins as a series of short articles.[4] He characterises Forward's account of tensions between the Manchester Vegetarian Society and the London Vegetarian Society as forthright.[8]
Fifty Years of Food Reform was published in 1898 by The Ideal Publishing Union in London and by the Vegetarian Society in Manchester.[2] A contemporary advertisement in The Vegetarian Messenger and Review promoted an "edition de luxe" of the book, described as a limited edition of 150 copies, "exquisitely bound" and printed on superfine paper, and priced at £0.53 (equivalent to £74.57in 2023).[9]
Reprint editions were published by Legare Street Press in 2021 (paperback) and 2023 (hardback).[10][11]
↑Full title: Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England: From Its Inception in 1847, Down to the Close of 1897: With Incidental References to Vegetarian Work in America and Germany: With Upwards of Two Hundred Illustrations
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
