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The Food of a Younger Land |
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The Middle West Eats Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota
Mark Kurlansky - Author
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| eBook: eReader | 110 pages | ISBN 9781101101032 | 30 Jun 2009 | Riverhead |
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A remarkable portrait of American food before World War II, presented by the New York Times–bestselling author of Cod and Salt.
In this Penguin eSpecial, Award-winning New York Times–bestselling author Mark Kurlansky takes us back to
the food and eating habits of a younger America: Before the national highway system brought the country closer
together; before chain restaurants imposed uniformity and low quality; and before the Frigidaire meant frozen food in
mass quantities, the nation’s food was seasonal, regional, and traditional. It helped form the distinct character,
attitudes, and customs of those who ate it.
In the 1930s, with the country gripped by the Great Depression
and millions of Americans struggling to get by, FDR created the Federal Writers’ Project under the New Deal as a make-
work program for artists and authors. A number of writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and Nelson
Algren, were dispatched all across America to chronicle the eating habits, traditions, and struggles of local people. The
project, called “America Eats,” was abandoned in the early 1940s because of the World War and never
completed.
The Food of a Younger Land unearths this forgotten literary and historical treasure and
brings it to exuberant life. Mark Kurlansky’s brilliant book captures these remarkable stories, and combined with
authentic recipes, anecdotes, photos, and his own musings and analysis, evokes a bygone era when Americans had
never heard of fast food and the grocery superstore was a thing of the future. Kurlansky serves as a guide to this hearty
and poignant look at the country’s roots.
From New York automats to Georgia Coca-Cola parties, from
Arkansas possum-eating clubs to Puget Sound salmon feasts, from Choctaw funerals to South Carolina barbecues, the
WPA writers found Americans in their regional niches and eating an enormous diversity of meals. From Mississippi
chittlins to Indiana persimmon puddings, Maine lobsters, and Montana beavertails, they recorded the curiosities,
commonalities, and communities of American food.
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