Introduction   1

1. Good Bread: Practices and Discourses  13

2. Bread: The Double Crisis   63

3. White Bread: A Western Story  100

4. The Enemy  122

5. Bakeries and the State  162

6. Bound to Quarrel, Condemned to Get Along: Millers and Bakers  212

7. Rue Monge Rivals and Other Mavericks  258

Conclusion  304

Acknowledgments  325

Notes  327

“Good Bread Is Back will become the canonical book on 20th century French baking, not only in English but in French too.”—The Fresh Loaf

“Students of French history and food will find [Good Bread is Back] completely absorbing and it should be required reading for any professional.”—Library Journal

“[T]his is very much a bread nerd's book. . . . It is a fascinating story, and Kaplan is the person to tell it.”—David Auerbach, The Independent Weekly

"A magnificent combination of polemic and scholarship, it asks how the superlative French bread of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries gave way to the disappointing industrial loaves of the 1960s onwards; and how these in turn, have been happily supplanted by a new generation of artisananal baguettes, batards and boules."—Bee Wilson, Times Literary Supplement

“Steven Laurence Kaplan raises powerfully important questions about the proper scale for an economy—about how big is too big, and how small is impractical—that go well beyond both France and bread. Indeed, Kaplan’s book spurs thought about what a postmodern economy might look like, and whether it might be possible for it to deliver satisfaction instead of simply piles of stuff.” —Bill McKibben, Books & Culture

“[Kaplan is] not just the leading authority on French bread but the conscience of French baking—a conscience that does not hesitate to tug. . . . Good Bread is Back [is] a punchy, compendious account of how French baking returned to its artisanal roots and sparked a revival in quality crusts.”—Michael Steinberger, Financial Times

“A good baguette is as integral a part of French cultural heritage as Paris and Lacan, and this beautiful book forms a fitting tribute, researched, written and illustrated with finesse.”—French Book News

“[F]or anyone with a broad interest in bread, the book is an excellent and comprehensive look at the product and how it has shaped, and been shaped by, French society.”—Bakers Journal

“Professor Kaplan’s new book is a tasty meditation on the many pleasures of good bread, wrapped in an object lesson on the evolution of artisanal production. Many readers who do not share the author’s passion for the technical aspects of breadmaking will nonetheless be impressed by it. And anyone who has ever stood in a French bakery savoring the scent and admiring the array of delectable brown loaves will be heartened by his optimistic conclusion that good bread will always drive out bad. It is, as Kaplan might say, a delicious book with a beautifully gilded crust and a pearly, chewy crumb.”—Steve Zdatny, H-France, H-Net Reviews

"[A] book every serious American bread enthusiast ought to read. . . . A good storyteller, Kaplan describes his large cast of characters in sharp detail, with numerous protagonists and antagonists, and does a fine job of capturing the center of good in each of them."—Peter Reinhart, Gastronomica

“Throughout this work, Kaplan powerfully demonstrates the symbolic charge of bread as it is ‘’deeply bound up with the basic values of sociability and well-being, with sacred and secular in communion’ (304). . . . Kaplan reminds us through bread, that bread sums up the human experience.”—Samuel Snyder, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

“Good Bread Is Back will become the canonical book on 20th century French baking, not only in English but in French too.”—The Fresh Loaf

“Students of French history and food will find [Good Bread is Back] completely absorbing and it should be required reading for any professional.”—Library Journal

“[T]his is very much a bread nerd's book. . . . It is a fascinating story, and Kaplan is the person to tell it.”—David Auerbach, The Independent Weekly

"A magnificent combination of polemic and scholarship, it asks how the superlative French bread of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries gave way to the disappointing industrial loaves of the 1960s onwards; and how these in turn, have been happily supplanted by a new generation of artisananal baguettes, batards and boules."—Bee Wilson, Times Literary Supplement

“Steven Laurence Kaplan raises powerfully important questions about the proper scale for an economy—about how big is too big, and how small is impractical—that go well beyond both France and bread. Indeed, Kaplan’s book spurs thought about what a postmodern economy might look like, and whether it might be possible for it to deliver satisfaction instead of simply piles of stuff.” —Bill McKibben, Books & Culture

“[Kaplan is] not just the leading authority on French bread but the conscience of French baking—a conscience that does not hesitate to tug. . . . Good Bread is Back [is] a punchy, compendious account of how French baking returned to its artisanal roots and sparked a revival in quality crusts.”—Michael Steinberger, Financial Times

“A good baguette is as integral a part of French cultural heritage as Paris and Lacan, and this beautiful book forms a fitting tribute, researched, written and illustrated with finesse.”—French Book News

“[F]or anyone with a broad interest in bread, the book is an excellent and comprehensive look at the product and how it has shaped, and been shaped by, French society.”—Bakers Journal

“Professor Kaplan’s new book is a tasty meditation on the many pleasures of good bread, wrapped in an object lesson on the evolution of artisanal production. Many readers who do not share the author’s passion for the technical aspects of breadmaking will nonetheless be impressed by it. And anyone who has ever stood in a French bakery savoring the scent and admiring the array of delectable brown loaves will be heartened by his optimistic conclusion that good bread will always drive out bad. It is, as Kaplan might say, a delicious book with a beautifully gilded crust and a pearly, chewy crumb.”—Steve Zdatny, H-France, H-Net Reviews

"[A] book every serious American bread enthusiast ought to read. . . . A good storyteller, Kaplan describes his large cast of characters in sharp detail, with numerous protagonists and antagonists, and does a fine job of capturing the center of good in each of them."—Peter Reinhart, Gastronomica

“Throughout this work, Kaplan powerfully demonstrates the symbolic charge of bread as it is ‘’deeply bound up with the basic values of sociability and well-being, with sacred and secular in communion’ (304). . . . Kaplan reminds us through bread, that bread sums up the human experience.”—Samuel Snyder, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

“Good Bread Is Back is a fascinating book that sums up the history of bread baking in France over the past several centuries. The author does it lovingly in a style that will move you to repair to your kitchen and oven to make bread that ‘sings’ as the golden yellow crust crackles as it cools, and a bite of it does not melt in the mouth right away but reveals the force of its taste only gradually as you chew. It is a welcome addition to the libraries of those seriously into breadmaking who wish a deeper understanding of the why and wherefore of their own French bread recipes.”—Bernard Clayton Jr., author of Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads

“You will never look at a French baguette in the same way again. Chock full of delicious details about every aspect of breadmaking, prepared with verve and loving devotion by a master of his craft, this book has something to appeal to every reader. Bread will never again seem a simple food; Steven Laurence Kaplan uses it to open up the deepest secrets of French life in the modern world.”—Lynn Hunt, coauthor of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution

“Like its subject matter, this book is a delicious and irresistible labor of love. Steven Laurence Kaplan has distilled his vast knowledge of France and French bread into a delightfully readable story that is also a brilliant, illuminating model of how to write contemporary social history.”—David A. Bell, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University

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