A Square Meal

By Jane Ziegelman, Andrew Coe, Andrew Coe

Book Overview

James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner

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 of 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 long-standing 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 long-standing 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, the tension between local traditions and culinary science has 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.

A Square Meal features 25 black-and-white photographs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062216414
• ISBN13: 9780062216410
• Release Date: August 2016
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

"A square meal" interesting stuff!

"A Square meal" arrived within a few days, after paging thru it I wished it had more recipes in it, however, I quickly became absorbed in the description of a time I had heard so much about, from people who had lived thru it.

How the Depression shaped the way we cook, eat, and think about food in the U.S.

A page-turner about food history that's hard to put down? YES. A book about food in the Great Depression could be expected to be about soup kitchens and recipe substitutions. Those are in here, sure--but it was news to me that the first urban generation to be dependent on fast food (the lunch counter) and suffer from a bad case of being lost in the kitchen were those who came of age in the 1920s. Things like serious food science, home economics classes, and the 'cooking show' were all born out of the circumstances of the Depression, and this book shows their evolution. I originally checked it out of the library and just had to have my own copy.