Overview

American eating changed dramatically in the early twentieth century. As food production became more industrialized, nutritionists, home economists, and so-called racial scientists were all pointing Americans toward a newly scientific approach to diet. Food faddists were rewriting the most basic rules surrounding eating, while reformers were working to reshape the diets of immigrants and the poor. And by the time of World War I, the country's first international aid program was bringing moral advice about food conservation into kitchens around the country. In Modern Food, Moral Food, Helen Zoe Veit argues that the twentieth-century food revolution was fueled by a powerful conviction that Americans had a moral obligation to use self-discipline and reason, rather than taste and tradition, in choosing what to eat. Veit weaves together cultural history and the history of science to bring readers into the strange and complex world of the American Progressive Era. The era's emphasis on science and self-control left a profound mark on American eating, one that remains today in everything from the ubiquity of science-based dietary advice to the tenacious idealization of thinness.

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9781469612751

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Reviews

Modern Food, Moral Food takes us back to the Progressive Era and to the origins of many popular American ideas about what we should eat. Veit's superb scholarship and lively prose make for an important, timely contribution to modern food history. --Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History It's not surprising to learn that food is tangled with perceptions of race, class, health, and patriotism. What is surprising is that Helen Zoe Veit has found the source of our current perceptions in the turn-of-the-century Progressive era. -- Appetite for Books Proof that food history is a serious academic discipline that can stand alone or interweave with women's studies, ethnic studies, sociology, economics, or health sciences. Highly recommended. All academic and large public library collections. -- Choice Veit has delved deeply into the archives on this topic, emerging with one of the best works of its kind. It may well be the 'crossover' book that many food scholars have tried to write for the last few years. -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History A gripping read, full of fascinating information on conceptualizing, cooking, and eating food. Veit shows how the U.S. government tried to manage food consumption during World War I by instilling a self-disciplined approach to food as a wartime necessity and democratic virtue. In the process, she reveals surprising connections between domestic developments and foreign affairs. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the making of modern American dietary practice. --Kristen Hoganson, author of Consumers' Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920

Modern Food, Moral Food takes us back to the Progressive Era and to the origins of many popular American ideas about what we should eat. Veit's superb scholarship and lively prose make for an important, timely contribution to modern food history. --Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History A gripping read, full of fascinating information on conceptualizing, cooking, and eating food. Veit shows how the U.S. government tried to manage food consumption during World War I by instilling a self-disciplined approach to food as a wartime necessity and democratic virtue. In the process, she reveals surprising connections between domestic developments and foreign affairs. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the making of modern American dietary practice. --Kristen Hoganson, author of Consumers' Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920 Veit has delved deeply into the archives on this topic, emerging with one of the best works of its kind. It may well be the 'crossover' book that many food scholars have tried to write for the last few years. -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History Proof that food history is a serious academic discipline that can stand alone or interweave with women's studies, ethnic studies, sociology, economics, or health sciences. Highly recommended. All academic and large public library collections. -- Choice It's not surprising to learn that food is tangled with perceptions of race, class, health, and patriotism. What is surprising is that Helen Zoe Veit has found the source of our current perceptions in the turn-of-the-century Progressive era. -- Appetite for Books

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