Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century
American eating changed dramatically in the early twentieth century. As food production became more industrialized, nutritionists, home economists, and so-called racial scientists were all pointing Americans toward a newly scientific approach to diet. Food faddists were rewriting the most basic rules surrounding eating, while reformers were working to reshape the diets of immigrants and the poor. And by the time of World War I, the country’s first international aid program was bringing moral advice about food conservation into kitchens around the country. In Modern Food, Moral Food, Helen Zoe Veit argues that the twentieth-century food revolution was fueled by a powerful conviction that Americans had a moral obligation to use self-discipline and reason, rather than taste and tradition, in choosing what to eat.
Veit weaves together cultural history and the history of science to bring readers into the strange and complex world of the American Progressive Era. The era’s emphasis on science and self-control left a profound mark on American eating, one that remains today in everything from the ubiquity of science-based dietary advice to the tenacious idealization of thinness.
1114979442
Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century
American eating changed dramatically in the early twentieth century. As food production became more industrialized, nutritionists, home economists, and so-called racial scientists were all pointing Americans toward a newly scientific approach to diet. Food faddists were rewriting the most basic rules surrounding eating, while reformers were working to reshape the diets of immigrants and the poor. And by the time of World War I, the country’s first international aid program was bringing moral advice about food conservation into kitchens around the country. In Modern Food, Moral Food, Helen Zoe Veit argues that the twentieth-century food revolution was fueled by a powerful conviction that Americans had a moral obligation to use self-discipline and reason, rather than taste and tradition, in choosing what to eat.
Veit weaves together cultural history and the history of science to bring readers into the strange and complex world of the American Progressive Era. The era’s emphasis on science and self-control left a profound mark on American eating, one that remains today in everything from the ubiquity of science-based dietary advice to the tenacious idealization of thinness.
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Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century

Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century

by Helen Zoe Veit
Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century

Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century

by Helen Zoe Veit

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Overview

American eating changed dramatically in the early twentieth century. As food production became more industrialized, nutritionists, home economists, and so-called racial scientists were all pointing Americans toward a newly scientific approach to diet. Food faddists were rewriting the most basic rules surrounding eating, while reformers were working to reshape the diets of immigrants and the poor. And by the time of World War I, the country’s first international aid program was bringing moral advice about food conservation into kitchens around the country. In Modern Food, Moral Food, Helen Zoe Veit argues that the twentieth-century food revolution was fueled by a powerful conviction that Americans had a moral obligation to use self-discipline and reason, rather than taste and tradition, in choosing what to eat.
Veit weaves together cultural history and the history of science to bring readers into the strange and complex world of the American Progressive Era. The era’s emphasis on science and self-control left a profound mark on American eating, one that remains today in everything from the ubiquity of science-based dietary advice to the tenacious idealization of thinness.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469607719
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 08/01/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Helen Zoe Veit is associate professor of history at Michigan State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Victory over Ourselves: American Food in the Era of the Great War 1

1 National Willpower: American Asceticism and Self-Government 11

2 Eating Cats and Dogs to Feed the World: The Progressive Quest for Rationed Food 37

3 Food Will Win the World: Food Aid and American Power 58

4 A School for Wives: Home Economics and the Modern Housewife 77

5 A Corn-Fed Nation: Race, Diet, and the Eugenics of Nutrition 101

6 Americanizing the American Diet: Immigrant Cuisines and Not-So-Foreign Foods 123

7 The Triumph of the Will: The Progressive Body and the Thin Ideal 157

Epilogue: Moral Food and Modern Food 181

Notes 189

Bibliography 269

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A gripping read, full of fascinating information on conceptualizing, cooking, and eating food. Veit shows how the U.S. government tried to manage food consumption during World War I by instilling a self-disciplined approach to food as a wartime necessity and democratic virtue. In the process, she reveals surprising connections between domestic developments and foreign affairs. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the making of modern American dietary practice.—Kristen Hoganson, author of Consumers' Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920

Modern Food, Moral Food takes us back to the Progressive Era and to the origins of many popular American ideas about what we should eat. Veit's superb scholarship and lively prose make for an important, timely contribution to modern food history.—Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History

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