Eating History

by Smith, Andrew F.

• ISBN13: 9780231140935
• ISBN10: 0231140932
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-23
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Food expert and celebrated food historian Andrew F. Smith recounts& -in delicious detail& -the creation of contemporary American cuisine. The diet of the modern American wasn't always as corporate, conglomerated, and corn-rich as it is today, and the style of American cooking, along with the ingredients that compose it, has never been fixed. With a cast of characters including bold inventors, savvy restaurateurs, ruthless advertisers, mad scientists, adventurous entrepreneurs, celebrity chefs, and relentless health nuts, Smith pins down the truly crackerjack history behind the way America eats. Smith's story opens with early America, an agriculturally independent nation where most citizens grew and consumed their own food. Over the next two hundred years, however, Americans would cultivate an entirely different approach to crops and consumption. Advances in food processing, transportation, regulation, nutrition, and science introduced highly complex and mechanized methods of production. The proliferation of cookbooks, cooking shows, and professionally designed kitchens made meals more commercially, politically, and culturally potent. To better understand these trends, Smith delves deeply and humorously into their creation. Ultimately he shows how, by revisiting this history, we can reclaim the independent, locally sustainable roots of American food.

Author Biography

Andrew F. Smith teaches food studies at the New School University in New York City. He has published more than three hundred articles on food and food history and has authored or edited seventeen books, including Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War and the Oxford Encyclopedia on Food and Drink in America. Smith has also appeared on television shows airing on PBS, the History Channel, and the Food Network.

Table of Contents

Prerace	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prologue	p. 1
Oliver Evans's Automated Mill	p. 5
The Erie Canal	p. 13
Delmonico's	p. 19
Sylvester Graham's Reforms	p. 29
Cyrus Mccormick's Reaper	p. 37
A Multiethnic Smorgasbord	p. 45
Giving Thanks	p. 57
Gail Borden's Canned Milk	p. 67
The Homogenizing War	p. 75
The Transcontinental Railroad	p. 33
Fair Food	p. 95
Henry Crowell's Quaker Special	p. 105
Wilbur O. Atwater's Calorimeter	p. 113
The Cracker Jack Snack	p. 123
Fannie Farmer's Cookbook	p. 133
The Kelloggs' Corn Flakes	p. 141
Upton Sinclair's Jungle	p. 155
Frozen Seafood and TV Dinners	p. 165
Michael Cullen's Super Market	p. 175
Earle MacAusland's Gourmet	p. 185
Jerome I. Rodale's Organic Gardening	p. 193
Percy Spencer's Radar	p. 203
Frances Roth and Katharine Angell's CIA	p. 211
McDonald's Drive-in	p. 219
Julia Child, the French Chef	p. 231
Jean Nidetch's Diet	p. 245
Alice Waters's Chez Panisse	p. 257
TVFN	p. 265
The Flavr Savr	p. 275
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Spin-Offs	p. 285
Epilogue	p. 293
Notes	p. 301
Bibliography	p. 347
Index	p. 365
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.