About the Baguette: Exploring the Origin of a French National Icon

Where did the baguette come from? A simple enough question, but this search for an answer ranges from the long breads of Babylon and Egypt to the first long (but wide) breads in France to the gradual evolution of long narrow breads from the eighteenth into the twentieth century, resulting in both the roll-sized "flute" and the gigantic jockos of the nineteenth century.