Resource Round-up
some reads I thought ya'll would like
Hello Friends!
As you know I have a bit to share about dieting history. Food is political. Dieting is political. Controlling food is a way to control a population. Dieting is a tool that allows individuals to assert their political beliefs - whether that expresses alignment or submission. During truly unprecedented times, talking about dieting sometimes seems trivial until I recall dieting trends from 100 years ago that sound so similar to what we’re experiencing now. Or worse - until watching politicians undo the hard work 19th century scientists who fought for food safety laws that protect us today.
If the intersection of dieting trends and politics interest you, it’s worthwhile reading up on material that examines the intersection of food systems, agriculture, food production, politics, social trends, and dieting trends. Below I’ve organized a range of books that explore these topics in different ways. Some are written for the general public, some for the academic. Thus, I’ve organized them by the most to least accessible. Let me know if you have any other reads worth sharing!
Hippie Food by Johnathan Kaufman
Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat journeys explores how hippies of the 1960s and 1970s asserted counter-culture values in their diets. One of the most interesting topics Kaufman explores is how food co-ops developed, survived, dissolved, or were taken advantage of by venture capitalists. As an experienced food writer, Kauffman tells an engaging story making it one of the most accessible food anthropology books. This was also a more approachable alternative to Warren Belasco’s Appetite for Change (which I still highly recommend for those who want something a bit more academic).
Eating While Black by Psyche A. Williams-Forson
Psyche A. Williams-Forson is an professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park leading conversations about food in America. In Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America by Williams-Forson explores how racism infiltrates food, medical, and media institutions leading to shaming and policing of Black Americans eating habits. Williams-Forson illuminates the cruelty of food shaming as oppressive and urges us to consider how we can change our food systems to be accessible and beneficial to all.
The Poison Squad by Deborah Blume
Michael Pollan once said “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food”. Unfortunately, many of our great or great-great grandparents had borax, arsenic, formaldehyde, sawdust, rock dust and more unpleasantries in our food. In The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, journalist Deborah Blume details the history of Harvey Wiley’s persistence in establishing the foundation of our food safety laws. This story of the past can help us understand issues of today.
In the Devils Garden by Stewart Lee Allen
Stewart Lee Allen tells some of the most taboo stories of our favorite foods including how tomatoes were not only once considered poisonous, but lustful and therefore sinful to eat. In the Devils Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food is a fun book with short snippets of foods must hush-hush histories helps us examine how social values have a much greater influence on our food beliefs than we might think.
Tastes of Paradise by Wolfgang Schivelbusch
In Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, Wolfgang Schivelbusch details the short history with the worlds most common household drugs. From coffee to tobacco to opium, Schivelbusch reveals how our relationship with intoxicants shapes the social world.
Holy Foods by Christina Ward
In Holy Foods: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat — An American History, food historian Christina Ward catalogues a wide range of religions and their dietary practices, explaining how their histories and beliefs shaped dieting trends. Each section even includes recipes from referenced religions. Ward’s research is extensive and reminds us of how dietary choices impacts our perceived and expressed identities.
Nature’s Perfect Food by Melanie E. DuBois
This fun food history book explores America’s fascination with milk, and as food safety laws are being dismantled, this history is more important to share than one might think. In Nature’s Perfect Food: How Milk Became America’s Drink by E. Melanie DuPois traces our nations history with milk to the 19th century, when feeding milk to children allowed bourgeoise women to have more freedom to be socialites. Milk’s perceived “purity” and “perfection” (for having every macronutrient) encouraged many to see it as a Godly food to strengthen the (white) race. As the book traces milks history to the modern day, it explores the progression of food processing, food policy, agriculture, and industrialization, which ultimately shifted our relationship with milk.
Appetite for Change by Warren Belasco
Originally written in 1989, one of the leading professors of in food studies details how counter-culturists used political beliefs to transform the landscape of “health” foods. From promoting vegetarianism and veganism to even “ethnic” cuisines, Belasco suggests that counter-culturists commitment to their political causes made our idea of “healthy” cuisine what it is today.
Food Justice by Robert Gottlieb and Annupama Joshi
Food Justice is a wonderful introduction to the concept of food justice and provides a snapshot of several food injustices that impact all of us. Gottlieb and Joshi explore a wide range of food justice topics including food deserts, dangerous farming conditions, capitalism, inequities, and food activism programs trying to improve food systems. So many of us care about the safety and quality of our food, yet so many are unaware of how industrial giants created a food system wider than we can see that negatively impacts our food, health, planet, and local economies.
A Taste for Purity by Julia Hauser
Published in 2023, Hauser explores the social movements and values in 19th century Europe and North America that led to the development of vegetarian movements. Hauser explores how vegetarianism was used to reinforce racism and eugenics against non-whites, and how white European vegetarians created worldwide false narrative about Indian diets. At the same time, some Hindu nationalists used vegetarianism as a means for colonial resistance. Although Hauser captures a small snapshot of vegetarianism, I loved the comprehensiveness of her research as it demonstrates the complexity of social movements and how many different peoples and values can exist in one place.
Fish on Friday by Brian M. Fagan
As a political tool, food history tells a history of politics and social change. In Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of the New World, Fagan tells the history of how fish was used as a tool to radically spread Christianity throughout Europe. The pursuit of fishing drove innovation in marine travel. Eating fish to substitute meat, which some of us hold as common spiritual practice today, was used by past political leaders to strengthen armies, improve the economy, and to criminalize those who did not follow religious doctrine held by the state.
Sweetness and Power by Sidney W. Mintz
In Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Sidney W. Mintz follows sugars travels to Europe, and concurrently its transformation from a luxury good for the elite to a staple commodity. Short but mighty, this book gives us a lesson in the destructive nature of colonialism and how it touches every aspect of our markets.
The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry
This collection of essays by one of the greatest agrarian philosophers holds weight despite most of these essays being published decades ago. The World-Ending Fire, shares some of Berry’s best work which emphasizes protecting open land and connecting ourselves with the local land, food, and community. Berry writes with a wisdom that can only come from deep, personal experience and will leave you nodding along.
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry
Originally published in 1977, The Unsettling of America is not only a must-read for advocates of local food systems, but reads as if it could be written today. Berry beautifully articulates the values and political history that have led Americans to be so disconnected from the land in which we live.
ANDDD… THAT’S NOT ALL.
With this post I am very excited to announce the Food is Lit Index on Substack. Yes - I finally did something worthwhile with all my readings. As a lover of food anthropology, I find myself stumbling upon some absolute gems in the least accessible places (used book stores or local book stores). As I’m sure there are plenty of other folks out there looking for a range of food-related books, I started putting together a list of food books. The index is still in its infancy, but I’m happy to receive any and all contributions.
What are you some YOUR favorite food books?