$42.49
Author: Zeide Anna
Brand: University of California Press
Edition: First
Number Of Pages: 280
Details: Product Description
2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award winner: Reference, History, and Scholarship
A century and a half ago, when the food industry was first taking root, few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning, consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay.
Since that unpromising beginning, the American food supply has undergone a revolution, moving away from a system based on fresh, locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry, taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science, marketing, and politics to win over a reluctant public, even as consumers resisted at every turn.
Review
“Zeide’s account goes well beyond canned food to include many other aspects of the larger food system and consumer activism more generally . . . She uses a wide range of primary and secondary sources, and demonstrates familiarity with a broad literature on the history of food and consumption. In this way, the book speaks to an interdisciplinary audience with ease.” ― American Historical Review
“Zeide’s thoroughly researched, comprehensive history is a necessary addition to the collections of policy-makers, activists, and anyone interested in reforming the modern food system of the United States.” ― Environmental History
“An insightful and multifaceted investigation. . . . A rare find—an academic book that is genuinely entertaining to read.” ― Gastronomica
“An important contribution.” ― Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies
From the Inside Flap
&;From the miracle of canned milk to the troubling presence of BPA in tomato soup, Anna Zeide&;s revealing history shows how the ever-increasing power of the processed food industry has profoundly shaped policies that affect what all Americans eat. This important book is useful food for thought for anyone interested in reforming our modern food system for the better.&;&;Ann Vileisis, author of Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back
&;Canned serves up food history at its finest, but its implications extend far beyond the pantry. Zeide persuasively demonstrates how the canning industry&;s rise owed as much to skillful manipulation of science and politics as to technological savvy. Readily digestible by undergraduates, Canned should have a long shelf life.&;&;Kendra Smith-Howard, author of Pure and Modern Milk: An Environmental History since 1900
&;This is a nuanced, robust, elegantly written history. Zeide establishes canning&;s importance to consumers, food systems, and business history. It will stay in your mind long after you put it down.&;&;Tracey Deutsch, author of Building a Housewife&;s Paradise: Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century
&;Canned looks inside a seemingly unassuming device to reveal an unseen world of complex relations between people, food, technology, and their environments. With grace and clarity, Zeide has written a fascinating and important history showing how canning&;s &;food engineering, marketing, and politicking&; led to the processed and packaged foods of today&;s kitchens.&;&;Benjamin R. Cohen, author of Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside
&;In Canned, Zeide treats us to a savory history of how canned food, on its journey from the farm to the supermarket shelf, reshaped American food and life. It is a story of changing agricultural production, marketing science, public health, consumer confi
Release Date: 06-03-2018
Package Dimensions: 22x234x512