Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-249) and index.
Contents:
1. Pemmican: Food in the Not-So-New World -- 2. Corn: Colonization and Settlement, 1500-1750 -- 3. Whiskey: Eating and Drinking in a New Nation, 1750-1800 -- 4. Graham Bread: Early Nineteenth-Century Diet and Reform -- 5. Potlikker: Food and Slavery in the Antebellum South -- 6. Peanuts: The Civil War, Reconstruction, and After -- 7. Jell-O: Industrialization in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era -- 8. Spaghetti: Immigration and Consumerism in the 1910s and 1920s -- 9. Oranges: Food and Agriculture in the Great Depression -- 10. Spam: Eating in the Second World War -- 11. Green Bean Casserole: Postwar Foodways -- 12. Tofu: Food in the Counterculture and Protest Era, 1960-75 -- 13. Chicken Nuggets: Cheap Food and Politics in the 1970 and 1980s -- 14. Big Mac: McDonaldization and Its Discontents, 1990-2008 -- 15. Korean Tacos: Immigration, Social Media, and America Today.
Summary:
From whiskey in the American Revolution to Spam in WWII, food reveals a great deal about the society in which it exists. Selecting 15 foods that represent key moments in the history of the United States, this book takes readers from before European colonization to the present, narrating major turning points along the way, with food as a guide. US History in 15 Foods takes everyday items like wheat bread, peanuts, and chicken nuggets, and shows the part they played in the making of America. What did the British colonists think about the corn they observed Indigenous people growing? How are oranges connected to Roosevelt's New Deal? And what can green bean casserole tell us about gender roles in the mid-20th century? Weaving food into colonialism, globalization, racism, economic depression, environmental change and more, Anna Zeide shows how America has evolved through the food it eats.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.