A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression

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...

• 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.