by Laura Shapiro From the publisher: In this captivating blend of culinary history and popular culture, the award-winning author of Perfection Salad shows us what happened when the food industry […]
Tag: 20th century
American Food by the Decades
edited by Sherri Liberman From the publisher: A fascinating survey of American food trends that highlights the key inventions, brands, restaurant chains, and individuals that shaped the American diet and […]
Penny restaurants fed the hungry during the Depression
“Penny restaurants” began in the late 19th century in cities across the United States. Usually operated as charitable programs to provide inexpensive meals to the needy, these eateries became most […]
Food Conservation During WWI
The United States Food Administration, created in 1917 and headed by Herbert Hoover, campaigned to convince Americans to voluntarily change their eating habits in order to have enough food to […]
Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century, 1900-1910
by Lisa Stoffer and Michael Lesy From the publisher: What we ate, how we ate, and how eating changed during America’s first real food revolution, 1900–1910. Before Julia Child introduced […]
Movie theatres start selling food during the Depression
When the Great Depression comes along, the first things to go bankrupt are the movie theaters in the early 1930s. So, exhibitors came up with all kinds of strategies to […]
How Did Food Stamps Begin?
The U.S. government launched a new program of food stamps in Rochester in 1939 to try to solve the triple problems of farm surpluses, weak sales for grocers and hungry […]
Coca-Cola on trial in 1911 charged with being injurious to health
In October of 1909, the Coca-Cola Company transported forty barrels and twenty kegs of its signature syrup across state lines, from its hometown of Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. As soon […]
Bakers banned from selling sliced bread during World War II
The U.S. government suddenly banned bakeries from slicing bread for their customers beginning in January, 1943. The reason was never clear. It was probably was an attempt to conserve wax […]
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 full text
An Act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other […]