A Square Meal

From the author of the acclaimed 97 Orchard and her husband, a culinary historian, an in depth exploration of the greatest food crisis the nation has ever faced the Great Depression and how it transformed America s culinary culture.The decade long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country s political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats Before 1929, America s relationship with food was defined by abundance But the collapse the economy, in both urban and rural America, left a quarter of all Americans out of work and undernourished shattering long held assumptions about the limitlessness of the national larder In 1933, as women struggled to feed their families, President Roosevelt reversed longstanding biases toward government sponsored food charity For the first time in American history, the federal government assumed, for a while, responsibility for feeding its citizens The effects were widespread Championed by Eleanor Roosevelt, home economists who had long fought to bring science into the kitchen rose to national stature Tapping into America s longstanding ambivalence toward culinary enjoyment, they imposed their vision of a sturdy, utilitarian cuisine on the American dinner table Through the Bureau of Home Economics, these women led a sweeping campaign to instill dietary recommendations, the forerunners of today s Dietary Guidelines for Americans At the same time, rising food conglomerates introduced packaged and processed foods that gave rise to a new American cuisine based on speed and convenience This movement toward a homogenized national cuisine sparked a revival of American regional cooking In the ensuing decades, this tension between local traditions and culinary science have defined our national cuisine a battle that continues today A Square Meal examines the impact of economic contraction and environmental disaster on how Americans ate then and the lessons and insights those experiences may hold for us today. Best Download A Square Meal Author Jane Ziegelman For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr You might imagine a culinary history of the Great Depression would be a catalog of cheap and skimpy meals, but having read previous works by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe, I knew I d be in for a social history with all the trimmings.I was not disappointed A Square Meal chronicles American diets in the early 20th century, tells the history of hoboes in America and the important differences between hoboes and tramps...I felt this to beof a social history of the Great Depression The first three chapters seemed devoted to the Roaring 20s Then it delved into politics of feeding or not feeding the unemployed, and events that affected agriculture, the beginning of home economists and promoting what a balanced diet was watered down and less is , and the beginning of food manufacturing with corporations such as Post, Birds Eye, Jell O even Ralston Purina I went into this seeking a culinary t...Disappointing, disorganized, and facile.This is not a bad book, but it is not a good book After being a little all over the place, it ends very abruptly Does not sufficiently discuss the history of the food theories that lead to the Depression menus an...I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from the publisher Food, like language, is always in motion, propelled by the same events that fill our history books 189 This work of non fiction covers the culinary habits of a nation in the wake of World War I and through the Great Depression Before the depression, America had an abundance of food, although rural and urban areas had very different habits concerning meals Yet the economic downturn left many malnourished and starving Fo I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from the publisher Food, like language, is always in motion, propelled by the same events that fill our history books 189 This work of non fiction covers the culinary habits of a nation in the wake of World War I and through the Great Depression Before the depression, America had an abundance of food, although rural and urban areas had very different habits concerning meals Yet the economic downturn left many malnourished and starving For the first time in American history, the government stepped in to make sure its people had something to eat This gave an opportunity for early pioneers of dietary recommendations to shape America s perception of a balanced diet and understanding of dietary recommendations The resulting tension between tradition and culinary science is one that still continues today To gain perspective on th...As disclosure, I am a social worker well versed in the canon of the New Deal and the growing idea of a social safety net And today I still worry about food deserts and the ways in which food continues to marginalize whole sections of the U.S., through illness and lifelong disease So, this book is right smack in my interest area and it is one perfect piece of work I had thought I would read a book heavy with recipes and dollar stretching ideas from magazines of the Depression era Instead I wa As disclosure, I am a social worker well versed in the canon of the New Deal and the growing idea of a social safety net And today I still worry about food deserts and the ways in wh...This meal was too dry for me.This book is much better than it has any right to be.As a mix of recipes, songs, photos, oral history, scholarship, science, nutrition, and American history, it is totally fascinating After the Depression hits, we learn about programs that formed before, and as part of, the New Deal, like the Federal Emergency Relief Administration FERA , the school lunch program, and the Food Stamp Plan, as well as the beginning of industry and consumer culture, as ...A Square Meal explores the food and the food culture during the Great Depression in the United States The Great Depression fundamentally changed the way that Americans thought about and interacted with food Food was, of course, rationed and individuals didn t have control over what kind of food they got many times People were expected to dowith less and turn food that may not have been the best into meals for their family.This book doesn t only explore what kind of food people made bu A Square Meal explores the food and the food culture during the Great Depression in the United States The Great Depression fundamentally changed the way that Americans thought about and interacted with food Food was, of course, rationed and individuals didn t have control over what kind of food they got many times People were expected to dowith less and turn food that may not have been the best into meals for their family.This book doesn t only explore what kind of food people made but the chain reaction set off by food scarcity It was the Great Depression that first got the government involved in food relief for its own people Prior to that, local communities were left to care for their own with what they had The Great Depression was so wide ranging and hurt communities far and wide that first states started to step in and then the federal government There were all sorts of logistics that various organizations and levels of government had to grapple with in order to ma...I got this book as part of Library Thing s Early Reviewer program I had heard about this book on Fresh Air on NPR and was led to believe, by the interview that this was going to be an account of what I like to call unfortunate food food that was nutritious, cheap and, ultimately unappetizing It was that, but it was also much .What this book really is is a history of American cuisine from World War I through the Great Depression, as well as a look at the attitudes of America towards I got this book as part of Library Thing s Early Reviewer program I had heard about this book on Fresh Air on NPR and was...Truthfully, I would give this 4.5 stars, but it is so hard to find interesting non fiction these days that I slid it over to five It was not entirely what I expected, but excellent in its own way nonetheless It coversthan the Great Depression, reaching back to the food policies of the Great War to find the roots of America s love affair with a scientific approach to food and cooking The focus is not so much culinary as dietary with much detailed attention to the dietary prescription Truthfully, I would give this 4.5 stars, but it is so hard to find interesting non fiction these days that I slid it over to five It was not entirely what I expected, but excellent in its own way nonetheless It coversthan the Great Depression, reaching back to the food policies of the Great War to find the roots of America s love affair with a scientific a...

• 03 February 2018
Jane Ziegelman
• Hardcover
• 336 pages
• 0062216414
• Jane Ziegelman
• A Square Meal