{"id":231,"date":"2009-10-21T10:27:21","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T14:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?page_id=231"},"modified":"2026-06-04T09:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:47:21","slug":"roderick-phillips","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/roderick-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"Rod Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n \n \n \n <\/h1>\n\n \n <\/header>\n\n\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a historian of early modern and modern Europe, especially eighteenth-century France and the French Revolution.  Thematically, my interests are the family, wine, food, and (most recently) cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started as a historian of the family, and I still work in the field. I\u2019m preparing a new edition of my survey history of divorce (published in 1988) for publication in 2027 or 2028, and I\u2019m Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Family History<\/em>, the journal of record in the field. In the late 1990s, I turned to the history of wine (and alcohol more generally), and I\u2019ve written several books on the subject. Among my current projects is a book on wine during the French Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to writing on the history of alcohol, I write on wine for the wine media. I wrote a weekly wine column for the Ottawa Citizen<\/em> for 15 years, I write for specialist media such The World of Fine Wine<\/em> (UK) and guildsomm.com (US), and I\u2019m the Canada consultant to The World Atlas of Wine<\/em> (UK). I\u2019ve judged in wine competitions in Canada, the US, Europe, South America, and elsewhere. My public-facing work includes media appearances and interviews, and I lecture about wine on European river cruises organized by the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I\u2019ve been working on the history of human-cat relationships. My book, Cats: A History<\/em>, discusses the way humans and cats have interacted over the last 12,000 years, especially over the last thousand. The ways people have historically treated cats, like the way they\u2019ve treated alcohol, provide windows into broader trends in society and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve held research fellowships in Canada, the UK, France, Sweden, Australia, and the US. I\u2019ve given academic papers in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, South Africa, France, Sweden, Spain, Germany, China, and Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I offer undergraduate courses on the history of alcohol, history of food, history of the family, the French Revolution, and everyday life in Early Modern Europe. I\u2019m available to supervise research in the history of food and drink, eighteenth-century France, the French Revolution, and the history of the family. My recent MA supervisions included theses on alewives in 17th-century England and coffeehouses in 18th-century France. My current PhD supervision focuses on the transfer of the notion of terroir<\/em> in wine from France to North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publications<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Articles, chapters, entries<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve published many articles and book chapters on marriage and divorce and on wine and alcohol. My articles have appeared in journals such as Social History<\/em>, Journal of Social History<\/em>, French Historical Studies<\/em>, Annales: Histoire, Sciences sociales<\/em>, and Annales de D\u00e9mographie Historique<\/em>.  I have contributed many entries to volumes such as Oxford Bibliographies On-line<\/em>, Encyclopedia of Alcohol and Temperance<\/em>, Encyclopedia of Food and Culture<\/em>, and Encyclopedia of Early Modern Europe<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also written the texts for three TED-Ed animated shorts, including this one (with 900,000 views) on Prohibition in the US: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y4BDnlUQ3CA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books published<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family Breakdown in Late-Eighteenth-Century France: Divorces in Rouen, 1792-1803<\/em> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divorce in New Zealand<\/em> (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1981)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western Society<\/em> (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Untying the Knot: Divorce in Western Society<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991; 6 foreign-language editions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Society, State, and Nation in Twentieth-Century Europe<\/em> (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Short History of Wine<\/em> (London: Penguin Books, 2000; New York: HarperCollins, 2001; 5 foreign-language editions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ontario Wine Country<\/em> (Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2006)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alcohol: A History<\/em> (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014; paperback, 2019; Qu\u00e9bec: Presses de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 Laval, 2015; audiobook; 5 foreign-language and international editions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French Wine: A History<\/em> (Sacramento: University of California Press, 2016; paperback, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9000 Years of Wine: A World History<\/em> (Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wines of Canada<\/em> (Oxford, UK: Infinite Ideas \u201cClassic Wine Library,\u201d 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink that Changed our Lives <\/em>(Oxford, UK: Infinite Ideas, 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(with Jean Bart) Un cur\u00e9 dans les vignes. Le recueil des jours de la vendange de Fran\u00e7ois Delach\u00e8re, cur\u00e9 de Volnay (1726-1781) <\/em>(Dijon: \u00c9ditions Universitaires de Dijon, 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cats: A History<\/em> (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026; audiobook; several foreign language editions forthcoming)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publications in preparation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapters in two volumes of Cultural History of Wine<\/em> (6 vols., London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New History of Divorce<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, under contract for delivery in 2026). This is a revised and updated edition of Putting Asunder<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wines of South-west France<\/em> (London: Acad\u00e9mie du Vin Library, under contract)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabernet Franc: Blending Stalwart and Stand-alone Star<\/em> (London: Acad\u00e9mie du Vin Library, under contract)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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