by Rafia Zafar From the publisher: Food studies, once trendy, has settled into the public arena. In the academy, scholarship on food and literary culture constitutes a growing river within […]
Category: books
Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment with Recipes
by Andrew F. Smith From the publisher: For topping French fries or cottage cheese, K rations or school lunches, ketchup has long been an American favorite. In Pure Ketchup, Andrew […]
President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families
by Adrian Miller From the publisher: James Beard award–winning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, […]
Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent
by John Reader From the publisher: The potato—humble, lumpy, bland, familiar—is a decidedly unglamorous staple of the dinner table. Or is it? John Reader’s narrative on the role of the potato […]
Politics of Purity: Harvey Washington Wiley and the Origins of Federal Food Policy
by Clayton A. Coppin and Jack High From the publisher: Spearheaded by Harvey Washington Wiley, the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 launched the federal regulation of food and […]
Political Ecology of Bananas: Contract Farming, Peasants, and Agrarian Change in the Eastern Caribbean
by Lawrence S. Grossman From the publisher: This study of banana contract farming in the Eastern Caribbean explores the forces that shape contract-farming enterprises everywhere–capital, the state, and the environment. Employing […]
Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History
by Mary Kilbourne Matossian From the publisher: Did food poisoning cause the Black Plague, the Salem witch-hunts, and other significant events in human history? In this pathbreaking book, historian Mary […]
Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century
by Laura Shapiro From the publisher: Toasted marshmallows stuffed with raisins? Green-and-white luncheons? Chemistry in the kitchen? This entertaining and erudite social history, now in its fourth paperback edition, tells […]
Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut
by James McWilliams From the publisher: What would Thanksgiving be without pecan pie? New Orleans without pecan pralines? Southern cooks would have to hang up their aprons without America’s native […]
Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America
by Harvey Levenstein From the publisher: In this sweeping history of food and eating in modern America, Harvey Levenstein explores the social, economic, and political factors that have shaped the […]