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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9781469626475

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Reviews

Ambitious and thought-provoking.--<i>Isis</i>

Will encourage a new direction in the discourse of food, modernism, acculturation and progressive reform.--Journal of Social History Veit succeeds in illuminating the changes in Americans' relationship with food in the early twentieth century and also provides the foundation for further inquiry on the topic.--H-Net 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 Reveals many of the surprising ways in which changing food practices influenced the broader culture. . . . Full of fascinating history.--Hedgehog Review 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 Original and sharp. Grounded in a rich documentary record and gracefully written, the book provides skillful interpretation and is enjoyable to read.--Journal of Southern 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 An insightful and very well written history of America in the Progressive Era through the lenses of food and eating.--H-Soz-u-Kult Ambitious and thought-provoking.--Isis A valuable contribution to the discipline of food studies and stylistically accessible to nonacademic readers.--Journal of American History [Makes] important--and distinct--contributions to both American studies and food studies.--Journal of American Studies Brings together a lively primary source base with astute argumentation to create a compelling, important contribution to the study of food, health, and modernization in America.--Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

Veit succeeds in illuminating the changes in Americans' relationship with food in the early twentieth century and also provides the foundation for further inquiry on the topic.--H-Net

Author Information

Helen Zoe Veit is assistant professor of history at Michigan State University, USA.

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