Kiple, Kenneth F. 1939–

(Kenneth Franklin Kiple)

PERSONAL:

Born January 29, 1939, in Waterloo, IA; son of Frank K. (a book company executive) and Jane (a librarian) Kiple; married Kriemhild Conèe; children: (previous marriage) Kim Maria, Kelly Jean, Carrie Rebecca, Graham Kenneth; (present marriage) Natascha. Education: University of South Florida, B.A., 1965; University of Florida, Ph.D., 1970.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bowling Green, OH. Office—Department of History, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403; fax: 419-372-8163. E-mail—kkiple@bgnet.bgsu.edu.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer, University of Florida, Gainesville, instructor in social science, 1969-70; Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, assistant professor, 1970-77, associate professor, 1978-80, professor of history, 1981-94, distinguished university professor, 1994—.

MEMBER:

American Association for the History of Medicine, Conference on Latin American History, Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright-Hays fellow, 1968-69; grants from American Council of Learned Societies and Social Science Research Council, 1977-79 and 1984, American Philosophical Society, 1982, Rockefeller Foundation, 1982, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1983-84 and 1989-90, and National Library of Medicine, 1990-91 and 1998-99; Paul and Ruth Olscamp Award from Bowling Green State University, 1986, for scholarly accomplishments; Guggenheim fellow, 1989-90.

WRITINGS:

Black in Colonial Cuba, 1774-1899, University of Florida Press (Gainesville, FL), 1976.

(With Virginia Himmelsteib King) Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora: Diet, Disease, and Racism, Cambridge University Press (New Yor, NY), 1981.

The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1984.

A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to encyclopedias and other books. Contributor to history journals.

EDITOR

The African Exchange: Toward a Biological History of Black People, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1988.

The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Plague, Pox, and Pestilence, Barnes & Noble (New York. NY), 1997.

(With Stephen Beck) Biological Consequences of the European Expansion, 1450-1800, Ashgate (England), 1997.

(With wife, Kriemhild Coneèe Ornelas) The Cambridge World History of Food (two volumes), Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kenneth F. Kiple is coeditor with his wife, Kriemhild Coneèe Ornelas, of the two-volume The Cambridge World History of Food. Containing 158 essays by specialists in history, anthropology, medicine, and nutrition, the book covers food history from the diet of early humans and the development of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago to modern-day dietary habits and food-related disorders. The book also includes a dictionary of plant foods. "With information that is up-to-date … and a fresh, engaging approach to their subject, Kiple and Ornelas have prepared a magnificent resource," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. John Charles, writing in the Library Journal, called The Cambridge World History of Food "a remarkable work of scholarship."

In his book A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, Kiple takes the information gathered from The Cambridge World History of Food and distills it into 300 pages. The author discusses such topics as how agriculture spread and the globalization of food, which he claims is not new to modern times. "It is a fascinating tale," wrote a contributor to the Economist, who concluded that the book "is brimming with curious titbits."

Kiple once told CA: "Although not black myself, I have focused on the biological history of the black in the Americas for many years. It's a dangerous topic, for there are always those who stand ready to twist biological findings on the black to racist purposes. On the other hand, my findings make this very difficult, for there is no doubt that the West Africans who reached the Americas as slaves constituted a biological elite; they were uniquely suited to withstand both the hostile disease environment that developed with the plantation system and the nutritional hardship that such a system invariably offered.

"Ecological, biological, and environmental history, although only in its infancy, is already redefining the ways in which historians go about interpreting the past by challenging many of their current assumptions. I am very fortunate to be a part of this effort that will surely lead to a complete revision of our understanding of human history before it is complete. My role in this effort has been to demonstrate the importance of a biological approach to historical investigation and, whenever possible, to bring medical and social scientists together for common research purposes.

"I am fascinated with the history of human health—an ever-changing field of investigation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1985, Allan H. Spear, Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora: Diet, Disease, and Racism, p. 490.

Booklist, December 1, 2000, review of The Cambridge World History of Food, p. 746.

Economist, November 4, 2000, "Food in History—You Ate It, Ralph," review of The Cambridge World History of Food, p. 94; July 7, 2007, "History on a Plate; Food," review of A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, p. 82.

Journal of American History, June, 1986, Michael Craton, review of The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History, p. 177.

Library Journal, October 15, 2000, John Charles, review of The Cambridge World History of Food, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, October 16, 2000, review of The Cambridge World History of Food, p. 74; April 2, 2007, review of A Movable Feast, p. 49.

Restaurant Hospitality, March, 2001, review of The Cambridge World History of Food, p. 32.

Times Literary Supplement, January 17, 1986, John Ward, review of The Caribbean Slave, p. 66.

Village Voice, July 6, 1982, review of Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora, p. 43.

ONLINE

Bowling Green State University Web site,http://www.bgsu.edu/ (September 8, 2007), faculty profile of author.