Something From The Oven: Reinventing Dinner In 1950's America

by Shapiro, Laurie Gwen

• ISBN13: 9780143034919
• ISBN10: 014303491X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-29
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

In a Captivating Blend of culinary history and popular culture, award-winning author Laura Shapiro shows us what happened when the food industry elbowed its way into the kitchen after World War II, brandishing canned hamburgers, frozen baked beans, and instant piecrusts. Big business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious of the new foods-and the make-believe cooking they entailed. With sharp insight and good humor, Laura Shapiro shows how the ensuing battle helped shape the way we eat today, and how the clash in the kitchen reverberated elsewhere in the house as women struggled with marriage, work, and domesticity. This unconventional history overturns our notions about the '50s and '60s offering vivid portraits of some of its most fascinating icons, including Poppy Cannon, Shirley Jackson, Julia Child, and Betty Friedan. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Laura Shapiro was an award-winning writer at Newsweek for more than fifteen years. The author of Perfection Salad, she has written for many publications, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Granta, and Gourmet. She lives in New York City

Table of Contents

Introduction: Do Women Like to Cook?	p. xvii
The Housewife's Dream	p. 1
Something from the Oven	p. 41
Don't Check Your Brains at the Kitchen Door	p. 85
I Hate to Cook	p. 129
Is She Real?	p. 169
Now and Forever	p. 211
Epilogue	p. 249
Notes	p. 255
Bibliography	p. 285
Permissions and Credits	p. 295
Index	p. 297
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