Foodies

Here are two books that were recently added to our library's collection.  There is actually an Anthropology class about food and culture, so perhaps that is why they came to us.  I don't konw.

I  just know that when I walk by the new book shelf and see a book that is entitled "White Bread" and looks like a loaf of Wonder Bread, it made me stop and look.  And then, later, the same thing with tuna.  Really? Tuna?  Are we really that obsessed with food?  Who would write a whole book about tuna fish?  Or bread, for that matter.

But I apparently am obsessed with food and culture in some little way because I plan to peruse them and maybe learn a little factoid or two and share them with you, dear readers.  Maybe. Someday.

It's a good thing I have long check out periods because it may take a while to get to this.  It's not quite a priority.

But, because I know you are curious, I shall provide the bibliographic information on these two titles.  Enjoy!

 White bread: a social history of the store-bought loaf
Bobrow-Strain, Aaron, 1969-

Boston : Beacon Press, c2012.

Physical description:

xi, 257 p. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Bread and power -- Untouched by human hands: dreams of purity and contagion -- The invention of sliced bread: dreams of control and abundance -- The staff of death: dreams of health and discipline -- Vitamin bread boot camp: dreams of strength and defense -- White bread imperialism: dreams of peach and security -- How white bread became white trash: dreams of resistance and status -- Beyond good bread.

Summary:

What can the history of America's one-hundred-year love-hate relationship with sliced white bread tell us about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat? How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become "white trash"? Fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get, but the story of social reformers, food experts, and diet gurus who believed that getting people to eat certain food could restore the nation's decaying physical, moral, and social fabric will sound very familiar. This book teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. Here the author argues that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like. As he traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion "good food" reflect dreams of a better society, even as they reinforced stark social hierarchies. As open disdain for "unhealthy" eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, the subject of this book is a timely examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.

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American tuna : the rise and fall of an improbable food 
Smith, Andrew F., 1946-

Personal Author:

Smith, Andrew F., 1946-

Title:

American tuna : the rise and fall of an improbable food / Andrew F. Smith.

Publication info:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2012.

Physical description:

xiv, 242 p. ; 24 cm.

Series Statement:

(California studies in food and culture ; 37)

Contents:

Part I. The Rise -- Angling for a Big Fish -- Looks Like Chicken -- Enemy Aliens -- This Delicious Fish -- Caucasians Who Have Tasted and Liked this Speciality -- Part II. The Fall -- Foreign Tuna -- Tuna Wars -- Porpoise Fishing -- Parts Per Million -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Historical Tuna Recipes.

Subject term:

Tuna--United States--History.

Subject term:

Canned tuna--United States--History.

Subject term:

Fish as food--United States--History.

Subject term:

Tuna fisheries--History.

Subject term:

Tuna fisheries--Environmental aspects--History.

Subject term:

Tuna industry--History.

Subject term:

Cooking (Tuna)

But Wait--

There's MORE

hee hee