Overview

This volume addresses the unique relationship between the American dream and the manifold ways in which food and food-related topics support and expand upon elements that constitute the American dream. The contributors discuss instances in which Americans of one heritage or another attempt to find freedom and fashion a life for themselves and a uniquely American identity. Through various forms of literature—novels, short stories, cookbooks, and memoirs—these essays explore the American Dream through a myriad of cultures, food, and their intertwined meanings.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robert Hauhart ,  Jeff Birkenstein
Publisher:   University of Tennessee Press
Imprint:   University of Tennessee Press
ISBN:  

9798895270813

Pages:   380
Publication Date:   16 June 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Available To Order  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction, Robert C. Hauhart Part 1: Using Food to Craft American Dream Fiction 1. Food and the American Dream in Four Celebrated American Novels, Robert C. Hauhart and Anahi Arenas Part 2: Narratives of Identity at the Intersection of Food and the American Dream 2. Queer Hunger, Unseen Food, and the American Dream, Lucky Issar 3. Grilling Manhood: Food, Masculinity, and the American Dream, David Magill 4. An Exploration of Bizarre Foods and the Representation of the American Dream and American Identity through Food, Erin Dicesare Part 3: Food and Memoir in Service of the American Dream 5. From Dishtowels to Riches: Chasing the American Dream in Restaurant Kitchens, Philine Schiller 6. Devouring and Reconstructing the American Dream in Bich Minh Nguyen’s Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, Stephanie Couey 7. “In a Corn-Field Number Every Grain”: Corn and Anne Bradstreet’s American Dream, Ann Beebe Part 4: Food in Diaspora Narratives and their Relevance to the American Dream 8. On the So-Called “Hummus Wars”: Palestinian Food and the Making of an Identity , Benay Blend 9. The Underbelly of the American Dream: Feeding, Eating, and Starving for Love in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Cristavao Nwachukwu Part 5: The Kitchen as a Stage for Feminine Resistance and as a Place to Achieve the American Dream 10. I Dream of Fried Chicken: Black Women, Black Foodways, and the American Dream, Khari Chanel Johnson 11. Just Add Eggs: Mixing up the American Dream, Kelly Spivey Part 6: African American Food Tropes as a Source of the American Dream 12. Soul Food in a Shoebox: How Culinary Resistance Helped African Americans Achieve the American Dream of Travel, Telia Mary U. Williams Anderson 13. The American Alimentary: Black Eating Cultures and Personhood in Toni Morrison’s Paradise, Diana Farin Molina 14. Loving My Soul: Reconciling African American Foodways with the American Dream, Rod Taylor Part 7: Consuming the American Dream as a Means to Constitute It 15. Consuming the American Immigrant Dream in Michael Gold’s Jews without Money, Jeff Birkenstein 16. Eating towards the American Dream: Consumption, Class, and (Un)fulfilment in Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, Natalie Wall 17. “Never an American”: Cathartic Food Practices against the Inhospitable in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Maria Mothes 18. Intersecting Dreams of a Nation and its Gourmet: Culinary Readings of Select Short Stories, Gigy Alex Contributors Index

Reviews

Author Information

Robert Hauhart is a professor in the Department of Society and Social Justice at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. He and Jeff Birkenstein have coedited six volumes of essays, including most recently Significant Food in American Literature. He is the author of The Lonely Quest: Constructing the Self in Twenty-First Century American Life and Seeking the American Dream: A Sociological Inquiry. Jeff Birkenstein is a professor of English at Centralia College in Washington. He and Robert Hauhart have coedited six volumes of essays, including most recently Significant Food in American Literature. He is also coeditor, with Anna Froula and Karen Randell, of The Cinema of Terry Gilliam: It’s a Mad World.

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