Books

FOOD CULTURE AMERICA
Aqua Aerobics Today! (West's Physical Activities Series)
Dr Bob Arnot's Guide to Turning Back the Clock
The Exclamation
Life with Mother
When a Parent Is Depressed
The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two
Passage to Power: Natural Menopause Revolution
Stress Management: Increasing Your Stress Resistance: Increasing Your Stress Resistance
Family Communication:Cohesion and Change: Cohesion and Change
Families in the New Millenium
Decisions for Healthy Living
Low Carb Lifestyle: All You Need to Know
Heal Your Life with Home Remedies and Herbs
Mosby's Textbook for Long Term Care Assistants
Mosbys Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage
Mosby's Essential Sciences for Therapeutic Massage
The Basic Causes of Modern Disease and How to Remedy Them
The Joy of Stress
Constant Craving A-Z: A Simple Guide to Understanding and Healing Your Food Cravings (A-Z)
The Exclamation
Menopause Made Easy: How to Make the Right Decisions for the Rest of Your Life
Aromatherapy 101
Natural Mental Health: How to Take Control of Your Own Emotional Well-being
Fault

Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats

Average customer rating:

Errors in Washington Post review
Good information, well synthesized
My Mother Warned Me About Eating These Products, But Would I Listen?
Scared Straight!
Such chemistry in the making.

Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats
Steve Ettlinger
Manufacturer: Hudson Street Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life
The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books)
Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting
How Doctors Think

ASIN: 1594630186
Release Date: 2007-03-01

Book Description

A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in dozens of common packaged foods, using the Twinkie label as a guide

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label—without a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what's polysorbate 60?” he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to the vanilla harvest in Madagascar, Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fascinating, thoroughly researched romp of a narrative that demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients—where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they're often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration into the food industry, if you've ever wondered what you're eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter, a food-grade equivalent of Plaster of Paris) this book is for you.

Customer Reviews:

Errors in Washington Post review.......2007-06-06

As the author, I have to alert you that the Washington Post review contains at leat four factual errors that imply the actual opposite of what I wrote, to wit:

"He also talks to lots of PR guys..." - I did not, and not one PR person is cited. I spoke with engineers, technicians, and scientists.

"PR guys...give him... the reassurance that there is absolutely no reason to fear any of the highly processed, sinisterly named ingredients... And Ettlinger, it seems, believes them." -- Wrong. Amid all my citations of toxic and explosive sub-ingredients, there is no affirmation of any PR guy's assertions.

"Ettlinger's characterization of partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as a `magnificent culinary achievement' is hard to swallow..." -- Ironic. This quote is actually a joke about the French and cheap pastries that introduces a section on trans fats, where I state that shortening "was almost killing us."

Powell also implies that I accept " ...the argument of high fructose corn syrup producers that portion size, rather than HFCS itself, is responsible for the obesity epidemic." -- Wrong. I emphatically write that the issue is clearly unresolved and full of controversy.

I would appreciate it if Amazon would correct these errors or at least publish my corrections. Thank you.

Steve Ettlinger

Good information, well synthesized.......2007-06-04

Ettlinger provides an excellent journey into the science and industry of key food ingredients using the ingredient list of a 'Twinkie' as the itenary for this trip. The book clearly provides an excellent overview of the sources, production processes and chemicals involved, some key players of each of the ingredient - without providing any specific 'judgements' on its relative health benefits - of course, all are deemed safe by regulatory agencies. That approach is welcome, though sometimes gives the narration a lack of "closure". To be fair, the author does point out this lack of studies, in passing, in a couple of chapters. The book does not reach the gravity of books like Omnivore's Dilemma, but still an excellent read. Overall, an excellent overview of the processing involved in some of the key ingredients we are now used to or "subjected to".... A must-read.

My Mother Warned Me About Eating These Products, But Would I Listen? .......2007-05-19

My wife has worked for years as a safety manager in the food industry, so I didn't expect too many surprises when I read this book. After all, I had been hearing about some of these products for about 15 years, in one fashion or another. And it didn't come as a shock that what is in snack cakes is also found in chips and cereal, as much of highly processed food is similar in content; it's just the arrangement that changes.

Maybe I took these materials for granted, as I have seen them in their finished state in boxes which the companies were getting ready to use. Somehow a material that is labeled "... Company Concentrated Chip Spice (Sour Cream & Onion)" just does not seem as intimidating as the chemicals presented in this book.

I was disgusted by the manufacturing technique of many of the chemicals, but realize that the science of chemistry is taking one molecule and making it into an entirely different molecule in the quickest and cheapest method possible. As long as the hazardous reactants are removed, I'm not really that terrified by eating most of these compounds, although I'm not that thrilled, either.

I can't wait to show my daughter this book, as she insists that canned spray cheese is really cheese, even though I keep telling her it is cheese food product. Reading this book will make her realize the difference between cheese food product and real cheese!

I did find the book fascinating and easy to read. The author did a wonderful job of blending the material with its source, its manufacture and then with its need within the recipe for the finished product. It was somewhat like reading a travelogue, a cookbook and a chemistry book rolled into one. Although the chemistry is fairly complex, the author does a wonderful job of digesting it into terms that even a chemistry dummy like me can understand and enjoy.

While I will look at a lot of foods differently, this book won't change what I eat. It will change my ability to understand and appreciate just what went into the finished product. I would highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in what they eat, in chemistry or in cooking. It is incredibly well written and will certainly make you think about what you are eating and the cost associated with our love of junk food.

Scared Straight!.......2007-05-14

By simply reporting how all of these ingredients are created, seeming without judgement on the author's part, has totally shifting how and what I want to eat. Do I really want to consume flour that has been bleached with highly toxic chlorine gas? Even if the FDA says its okay. This book allows you to draw your own conclusions. Brilliant! Even if the intention was not to have a Come to Jesus Moment with your food, it did for me!

Such chemistry in the making........2007-05-09

What an inane subject. What an utterly fascinating study about our food sources!

Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America

Average customer rating:

Look Out Mickey-Ds!
Talk About Muckraking!
fast food realism
I love Morgan!
a must read for educating yourself

Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America
Morgan Spurlock
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World
Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food
Fast Food Nation
Super Size Me
The Great American Detox Diet: 8 Weeks to Weight Loss and Well-Being

ASIN: 0425210235

Book Description

The nauseating truth from the producer, director, and guinea pig of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Super Size Me.

Just when you figured it was safe to scarf fries again comes the factpacked and funny new alarm bell from the man whose month-long McDonald's diet became the subject of an Oscar-nominated, box-office-bonanza documentary. Here Morgan Spurlock examines everything from school lunch programs and the marketing of fast food to the decline of physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive-and interviews everyone from surgeons general and kids to marketing gurus and lawmakers, who share their research and opinions on what we can do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions.

Customer Reviews:

Look Out Mickey-Ds!.......2007-03-22

There was in recent years an attempt by some obese people to take McDonalds to court, along with Burger King, Wendy's, and many other fast food establishments. So in stepped "Big Brother", in this case our government to put a stopto this foolishness. The result the McDonalds law.

I am not sticking up for McDonalds, or any other fast food joint, but I do say that I believe it to be the basic responsibility of us as consumers to know what we are putting in our mouths, and what if anything said effects will results. There is no gun at our heads, but it has been reported some additives are placed in these fast foods to cause addiction. The biggest of these is "High Fructose Corn Syrup", which hides in everything from soft drinks, to ice cream, and because of the way this substance is processed, has become a number one cause of diabetes.

When they say "Have It Your Way", that is a death bell ringing loud, and clear. Obesity is out of hand, and food producers are railing aganist "Eat Less Exercise More". The deadly combination of white bread, and deep fried foods, fried by the way in "Hydrogenated Vegetable Grease", is a Cardiologist dream, because he/she can now buy that new Benz he/she has been eyeballing. Then there is the international 4 billion dollar a day 'diabetes industry', and wow.

First we go to Mickey-Ds, and then the doctor's office, and then the graveyard. How's that?

These companies have only one intent, their bottom line, no concern for you or your family. Seems we as individuals care little about our own well being, because few of us have taken the time to educate themselves. What this dead food is doing to our health, and just how much the existance of these fast food joints is costing our society as a whole. Instead of cheers when the report came out that Russia and China had opened fast food outlets in their nations, we should have been shedding tears.

This book is a good place to start to educate one's self, and how to improve the quality of one's life. Too many of us take for granted nursing homes must be in our futures, as a fact of life. Truth is we through our own actions, or inaction write that ticket. The information exists, we need to look for this life extention knowledge. Not to say we will live to be 100, but even when we do age, there can be quality to life in general.

Many facts exist here, and many lies in the media are passed on, and few of us question the print ads, or the commericals on TV and radio. Question everything the media presents, and read books such as the one here, there is a lot from both sides of the fence, and one side has never met a lie it would not tell on behalf of the bottom line.

This is a revealing book to say the least, and too many fast food outlets are selling death on a bun. If you have children, first read, and then share this book with your children. Help them to make good choices when it comes to food.

Talk About Muckraking!.......2007-02-04

A tragic-comic and enlightening account of the making of the filmmaker-author's McDonalds restaurant marathon, during which he ate every meal for a month at the fast-food giant, with deleterious health results. This grisly read inspired my husband to try to replicate the never-decaying cheeseburger experiment, which Spurlock describes in the book (a cheeseburger left on a high shelf will simply dessicate, not rot, because it is so full of chemicals). Baskin-Robbins' heir John Robbins wrote a similarly eye-opening, stomach-churning book "Diet for a New America", which throws bright light onto the corporatization of mega-farm, mega-food practices. Highly recommended.

fast food realism.......2007-01-30

morgan spurlock does a superior job keeping his readers entertained and educated during this expose on fast food giants and how they are corrupting our lifestyles and waistlines.

I love Morgan!.......2007-01-04

I love Morgan Spurlock. That is the main reason I gave this book 4 stars, rather than 3.

I have seen his amazing documentary several times, so a lot of this stuff was just rehashing the movie.

I found the appendix in the back with the list of companies owned by big tobacco to be fascinating. For me, that was worth the price of admission.

I also love the fact that he understands loving what you eat, even if it is not the healthiest. As someone who ate at McDonalds at least three times a week. Yes, I was a heavy-user (a McDonalds' term for their customers). I will say that fast food and junk food are like a drug. I have never smoked or done any kind of drug. The high I got when I ate those fries when they were warm and salted just right was unbeatable.

I am transitioning to a vegan diet thanks to the documentary and this book. I bought it along with his fiance's book, "The Detox Diet." I think they are good companion books. Even if you are like Morgan, who is not vegan, you will benefit from her book.

My old way of thinking about what I ate, was not thinking at all. It was all about the taste, not the ingredients or affect on my health. Morgan has opened my eyes. I have seen the light. Hallelujah! I have seen the light!

THANK YOU, MORGAN! I HAVEN'T ATE AT A MCDONALDS IN OVER A YEAR!

a must read for educating yourself.......2006-11-09

If you have seen the book, a must read!!

The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America

Average customer rating:

A unique book
A Garden Democracy
The Studs Terkel of Gardening
I wanted more
Will interest not only gardeners, but any intrigued by immigrant history and cross-cultural encounters

The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America
Patricia Klindienst
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
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ASIN: 0807085715

Book Description

Inspired by her own family's immigrant history, Patricia Klindienst traveled the country, gathering stories of urban, suburban, and rural gardens created by people rarely presented in books about American gardens: Native Americans, immigrants from across Asia and Europe, and ethnic peoples who were here long before our national boundaries were drawn. In The Earth Knows My Name, she writes about the beautiful gardens she discovered, each one an island of hope, offering us a model—on a sustainable scale—of a truly restorative ecology.

"A moving tribute to those who keep the ancient love of the land in their hearts, and who stand up to the giants of agrobusiness in their fight to preserve their cultural heritage." —Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace, and author of Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

"Carefully weaving the threads of the cultures that were here before with those that came later, Klindienst makes her case for the deep, life-giving integrity of the earth . . . This is a poignant book that shows, without undue sentimentality, the underlying element we all share and can bring to life with our hands." —Edie Clark, Orion

Patricia Klindienst is a master gardener and an award-winning scholar and teacher. She lives in Guilford, Connecticut, and teaches creative writing each summer at Yale University.

Customer Reviews:

A unique book.......2007-05-16

This is an interesting, beautifully written book describing the connection between a culture and growing food, using specific individuals in different parts of America -- Native American, Hispanic, Japanese, Italian, and so on. Gardening breathes life into the culture and the person. It is an unusual, heartfelt theme.

A Garden Democracy.......2007-05-09

What a beautiful, wise, passionate and informed book. I guarantee you will want to discuss its ideas with your friends, and give copies to those you love most. And of course, if you don't have a garden, it will inspire you to start one. Or, if you don't have the space, to find a community garden. Or, if you don't have access even to a community garden, to start growing some herbs at home!

I would like to share one short quote here, from the epilogue, entitled A Garden Democracy. There's a fellow in Connecticut called Whit Davis, the last surviving member of his Yankee clan, who recently made a gift of some original Indian seed corn to a local tribe. As a result this tribe have been able to finally start recreating the Indian gardens that the first English settlers came across and destroyed in short order.

"How can a gesture as simple as the gift of seeds be a meaningful answer to centuries of injustice?
Because it makes possible the restoration of the seed's place in a structure of meaning. The English imposed on "the garden of New England" the idea of land as commodity, the wilderness as a fund of natural capital at their disposal, and seed as a form of currency. Whit's return of the seeds refuses those meanings."

Exactly. Through reading this book, and hopefully cultivating a piece of land yourself, you will come to understand that it's not just real estate, it's not just a commodity, it's Mother Earth. In other words, the Indians were right all along.

Right up there with Michael Pollan, Aldo Leopold, Sir Albert Howard, Richard Evans Schultes, Paul Stamets, Jane Goodall, Masanobu Fukuoka, Carlo Petrini, Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Edward O. Wilson, and all the others who have drawn attention to the fact that our relationship to the earth is more than merely economic.

Thank you Patricia!

The Studs Terkel of Gardening.......2006-09-13

In the early 1970's Studs Terkel traveled across the country interviewing people about their work, and eventually compiled the interviews into the book Working. In the early 2000's, Patricia Klindienst took a similar approach, traveling around the USA to interview ethnic gardeners, immigrants who maintain their cultural identity through their connection to the earth.

While The Earth Knows My Name will never be a musical, it is a marvellous testament to the importance of earth and water, seed and plant, and in sustaining not just our ethnic roots, but also our whole selves. Her words bring to life the feeling of warm sun on your back while you plant corn, or crisp autumn mornings harvesting beans. She lets you smell the scent of flowers, but also taste the flavor of language, in her profiles of 15 gardeners.

This book is well written, it is poignant, and it is gently honest, with the author's love of gardening, and sincere respect for her subjects masking the inevitable political undercurrents.

My only complaint is that there should have been more pictures - I craved a coffee-table presentation, with Klindienst's words matched to lush photographs.

But maybe the mind's eye is the better viewing choice. Buy the book, and decide for yourself. Better yet, buy the book, and plant a garden.

I wanted more.......2006-08-05

I would have purchased this book even if I did not know some of the people and places in this book. Patricia's material and writing are inspirational not just for gardeners but for anyone who is interested in where their food originates. The diversity of the gardens and gardeners made me realize again, the necessity of supporting our local growers. My only complaint is that I wanted more and found myself rationing my chapters. Hopefully there will be a sequel to include the gardens she omitted. I strongly recommend this book. Makes a great gift.

Will interest not only gardeners, but any intrigued by immigrant history and cross-cultural encounters.......2006-07-27

THE EARTH KNOWS MY NAME: FOOD, CULTURE, AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE GARDENS OF ETHNIC AMERICANS isn't just from a single gardener's perspective: master gardener Patricia Klindienst traveled across the country for three years to write this, gathering stories of urban and rural gardens from American gardeners whose immigrant roots reflect their gardening choices. Hers combines a history of how immigrant Americans grew food and transmitted cultural background in the process, with chapters blending their oral stories with such background. It's a wide-ranging title which will interest not only gardeners, but any intrigued by immigrant history and cross-cultural encounters.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America

Average customer rating:

Interesting book!
Dry popcorn needing lots of butter
Popped Culture, Pop History
No kernel of popcorn history goes unpopped!
Corn based cultural history at its best.

Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America
SMITH ANDREW F
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1560989211

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book!.......2007-05-01

As an avid popcorn fan, I must say this is an indispensable volume--the complete history of popcorn, with so many good recipes (some I've never even heard of!), etc. It takes some reading, but is highly enjoyable--the history told is similar to The Popcorn Book, with many, many details that are interesting to read.

Popcorn lovers--get this book!

Dry popcorn needing lots of butter.......2001-06-05

"Popcorn is America's gift to the world, and what a wonderful, fun-filled bequest it is."

Such is the very last line in the narrative section of POPPED CULTURE: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF POPCORN IN AMERICA. This very informative volume by Andrew Smith describes every aspect of this snack food, from its evolution on the cob in pre-historical Central and South America to 20th century "gourmet popcorn" in microwave bags.

While the book's title states this is a "social history", it seemed to me more a chronicle of the popcorn industry, especially in the United States, where popcorn was "invented", i.e. reached the citizenry's mass consciousness, in the first half of the 19th century. Smith has extensively researched every element of the saga: growers, processors, vendors, entrepreneurs, popping devices, packaging, flavoring, advertising, and target markets (both children and adults, at home and at the "movies").

Because so much of this book is a detailed narrative of the biz, it's not particularly fun, but rather like popcorn without butter and salt. There are too many passages like the following:

"... Wyandot (Popcorn Company) was sold to Vogel Popcorn, a division of Golden Valley. Golden Valley is now owned by ConAgra. ConAgra had previously purchased Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn during the mid 1970s. Jiffy Pop was sold in 1962 to American Home Products. In 1996 American Home Products was acquired by Hick, Muse, Tate and Furst, an investment firm, and it food industry management affiliate, C. Dean Metropoulos. Today Jiffy Pop and Franklin Crunch `N' Munch are part of International Home Foods, Inc., of Parsippany , New Jersey."

Why would any but the most obsessive of popcorn lovers, or business students, care?

POPPED CULTURE includes a small section of illustrations, and extensive sections dedicated to Notes and Bibliography/Resources. It also incorporates a 48-page chapter on historical recipes. Anyone for macaroni and popcorn, prune and popcorn pudding, popcorn omelet, popcorn macaroons, popcorn stuffed dates, popcorn soup, popcorn scrapple, popcorn and parsnips, popcorn and bacon, popcorn hash, popcorn with ice cream, or popcorn trifle? Uh, no. I think I'll just have the large tub ... with extra butter.

Popped Culture, Pop History.......1999-12-21

If you think that popcorn has always been at the local multiplexes, think again. In Popped Culutre you will learn the history behind popcorn and its very history as that American of snack foods. When it arrived in the movie houses and how it all came to be. But not only do you get the complete history of popcorn, but you get some neat ways to make popcorn a fascinating snack.

No kernel of popcorn history goes unpopped!.......1999-08-26

This book is an entertaining addition to culinary history, debunking myths about popcorn and contributing much to the reader's knowledge with meticulously documented research. (Was popcorn served at the first Thanksgiving, or is that just popcorn lore?) It is interesting to follow the rise in the popularity of popcorn in the larger context of American social history to become a movie staple, TV companion, and microwave gourmet food. Though not intended as a cookbook, a particularly interesting section contains over 160 popcorn recipes published before 1924, including some for biscuits, bricks, stuffing, sandwiches, and more than 25 for popcorn balls alone. Anyone for a bowl of popcorn soup? Other popcorn related products are included in the history, including a significant amount of Cracker Jack coverage. It seems that Mr. Smith has left no kernel of popcorn information unpopped. Warning: It would be difficult to read this book cover to cover without stopping more than a few times to pop up a batch of popcorn; but salt and butter are optional, so enjoy devouring it in good health.

Corn based cultural history at its best........1999-08-15

Expand your horizons and bring some excitement into your culinary life with popcorn recipes in salads, vegetables and omelets. Broaden your candy eating base with Smiths' "Popped Culture" suggestions. Andrew Smith writes well and illustrates how much popcorn is a part of our everday lives either watching movies in a theatre or at home on TV.Reading about the mania of TV popcorn in the 1950's or going back to its beginnings in the mid-19th Century is a study in American culture at its best.

Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America, Revised Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture)

Average customer rating:

Great Book

Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America, Revised Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture)
Harvey Levenstein
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (California Studies in Food and Culture)
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ASIN: 0520234405

Book Description

In this sweeping history of food and eating in modern America, Harvey Levenstein explores the social, economic, and political factors that have shaped the American diet since 1930.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-06-29

I had to read this for my class, but it is a very interesting. If you are into the history of the American diet I would highly recommend this book.

Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge: Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs and the Sacred

Average customer rating:

Keeping Heart On Pine Ridge:Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs and the Sacred
Keeping Heart
Telling it like it is
Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge
Real Life Moments

Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge: Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs and the Sacred
Vic Glover
Manufacturer: Native Voices
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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On the Rez
Pine Ridge Reservation (Images of America: South Dakota)
Standing in the Light: A Lakota Way of Seeing (American Indian Lives Series)
Sacred Fireplace (Oceti Wakan): Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living

ASIN: 1570671656

Book Description

This title was among the winners of the 2006 Skipping Stones Honor Awards for Multicultural & International Awareness Books. Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge is an intimate look at contemporary life with the Lakota people on Pine Ridge Indian Rerservation, near the Black Hills in South Dakota. Insightful stories of compassion, despair, humor, and spiritual growth are drawn from two years of daily life in a strong and tormented community. Firsthand accounts of sundances, commodity foods, sweat lodges, drunken driving, and the Sacred provide the fabric through which Glover weaves his incisive wit and wisdom on the social and political forces that have challenged his people and made them stronger.

Customer Reviews:

Keeping Heart On Pine Ridge:Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs and the Sacred.......2005-11-28

A group from our church has gone to Pine Ridge on Mission trips for the past three years and we have gotten to know quite a few people there. We always seem to have gained more than we have given during our week stay. This book tells it how it is for much of the population on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It is a very helpful book for the leaders of our Mission to share with others that are joining us. We love the people there. They focus on what really matters in life and brings us back to where we all need to live. Most of us are so far removed from nature, family, giving our all to each other. This book shows us how and points out how far removed we are. It really brings questions to the way that I am living my life. It points out just how differently I need to live to become apart of life as Jesus would want me to live it.
Thank you, Vic Glover. And thank you to our Native brothers and sisters.

Keeping Heart.......2005-02-01

This is a beautiful collection of short stories and is a real life account of living on in Indian reservation in todays modern times.
Vic Glover has an amazing talent and style of writing that 'just takes you right there'.
With much humour and sadness, Vic takes you on a journey, that whets the appetite, always leaving you wanting to read more.
This is a great read, I highly recommend it.

Telling it like it is.......2004-12-23

A moving glimpse into the everyday lives of the people that live on Pine Ridge. The blending of Lakota spirituality into the challenges of life in an impoverished society is outstanding!

Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge.......2004-12-12

A must read for anyone interested in what life on a western Rez is really about. BroVic captures the humor and pathos of daily life in a marvelously clear, straightforward way that simutaneously makes you wish you were there to share in it and glad that you're not.

Real Life Moments.......2004-12-11

I lived on a rez for 7 years, but I could never convey to others the texture of living there. Vic Glover can. This is a beautiful bouquet of real life vignettes, interwoven and told with an honest voice. Vic writes with nothing to hide, and that makes these stories so rich and visceral.

And it's damn cheap, like me. Perfect for Christmas presents. I'm gonna order some more copies.

Cooking in America, 1840-1945 (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

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Cooking in America, 1840-1945 (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)
Alice L. McLean
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0313335745

Book Description

This cookbook covers the years 1840 through 1945, a time during which American cookery underwent a full-scale revolution. Gas and electric stoves replaced hearth cookery. Milk products came from commercial dairy farms rather than the family cow. Daily meals were no longer bound by seasons and regions, as canned, bottled, and eventually frozen products flooded the market and trains began to transport produce and meat from one end of the country to the other. During two World Wars and the Great Depression women entered the work force in unprecedented numbers and household servants abandoned low-paying domestic jobs to work in factories. As a result of these monumental changes, American home cooking became irrevocably simplified and cookery skills geared more toward juggling time to comb grocery store shelves for the best and most economical products than toward butchering and preserving an entire animal carcass or pickling fruits and vegetables. This cookbook reflects these changes, with each of the three chapters capturing the home cooking that typified the era. The first chapter covers the pre-industrial period 1840 to 1875; during this time, home cooks knew how to broil, roast, grill, fry, and boil on an open hearth flame and its embers without getting severely injured. They also handled whole sheep carcasses, made gelatin from boiled pigs trotters, grew their own yeast, and prepared their own preserves. The second chapter covers 1876 through 1910, a time when rapid urbanization transformed the United States from an agrarian society into an industrial giant, giving rise to food corporations such as Armour, Swift, Campbell's, Heinz, and Pillsbury. The mass production and mass marketing of commercial foods began to transform home cooking; meat could be purchased from a local butcher or grocery store and commercial gelatin became widely available. While many cooks still made their own pickles and preserves, commercial varieties multiplied. From 1910 to 1945, the period covered by Chapter 3, the home cook became a full-fledged consumer and the national food supply became standardized to a large extent. As the industrialization of the American food supply progressed, commercially produced breads, pastries, sauces, pickles, and preserves began to take over kitchen cupboards and undermine the home cooks' ability to produce their own meals from scratch. The recipes have been culled from some of the most popular commercial and community cookbooks of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taken together, the more than 300 recipes reflect the major cookbook trends of the era. Suggested menus are provided for replicating entire meals.

Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food (California Studies in Food and Culture)

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Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food (California Studies in Food and Culture)
Warren Belasco
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520250354

Book Description

In this provocative and lively addition to his acclaimed writings on food, Warren Belasco takes a sweeping look at a little-explored yet timely topic: humanity's deep-rooted anxiety about the future of food. People have expressed their worries about the future of the food supply in myriad ways, and here Belasco explores a fascinating array of material ranging over two hundred years--from futuristic novels and films to world's fairs, Disney amusement parks, supermarket and restaurant architecture, organic farmers' markets, debates over genetic engineering, and more. Placing food issues in this deep historical context, he provides an innovative framework for understanding the future of food today--when new prophets warn us against complacency at the same time that new technologies offer promising solutions. But will our grandchildren's grandchildren enjoy the cornucopian bounty most of us take for granted? This first history of the future to put food at the center of the story provides an intriguing perspective on this question for anyone--from general readers to policy analysts, historians, and students of the future--who has wondered about the future of life's most basic requirement.

American Indian Food (Food in American History)

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In-depth coverage of the history of American Indian foods and traditions

American Indian Food (Food in American History)
Linda Murray Berzok
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313329893

Book Description

The story of Native American foodways presented here is an amazing chronicle of both human development over thousands of years and American history after the European invasion. Through cultural evolution, the First Peoples worked out what was edible or could be made edible and what foods could be combined with others, developed unique processing and preparation methods, and learned how to preserve and store foods. An intimate relationship existed between them and their food sources. Dependence on nature for subsistence gave rise to a rich spiritual tradition with rituals and feasts marking planting and harvesting seasons. The foodways were characterized by abundance and variety. Wild plants, fish, meat, and cultivated crops were simply prepared and eaten fresh or smoked, dried, or preserved for lean winters. The European invasion forced a radical transformation of the indigenous food habits. Foodways were one of the first layers of culture attacked. Indians were removed from their homelands, forced to cultivate European crops, such as wheat and grapes, new animals were introduced, and the bison, a major staple in the Great Plains and West, was wiped out. Today, American Indians are trying to reclaim many of their food traditions. Other traditions have become part of the broader American cookbook, as many dishes eaten today were derived from Native American cooking, including cornbread, clam chowder, succotash, grits, and western barbeque. The scope is comprehensive, covering the six major regions, from prehistory until today. Chapters on the foodways history, foodstuffs, food preparation, preservation, and storage, food customs, food and religion, and diet and nutrition reveal the American Indians' heritage as no history can do alone. Examples from many individual tribes are used, and quotations from American Indians and white observers provide perspective. Recipes are provided as well, making this a truly indispensable source for student research and general readers.

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In-depth coverage of the history of American Indian foods and traditions.......2005-07-06

Relatively few titles have been written covering American Indian Foods; much less in depth: this fact makes all the more valuable Linda Berzok's in-depth coverage of the history of American Indian foods and traditions. From how foods were gathered, prepared and stored to changing recipes, newly added foods, and food customs and traditions, AMERICAN INDIAN FOOD is an important coverage.

Cooking in America, 1590-1840 (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

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Cooking in America, 1590-1840 (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)
Trudy Eden
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0313335672

Book Description

There are no recipes for what the Indians ate in Colonial times, but this cookbook uses period quotations to detail what and how the foodstuffs were prepared. The bulk of the cookbook is devoted to what the European immigrants cooked and what evolved into American cooking. The first colonists from England brought their foodways to America. The basic foods that Americans of European descent ate changed very little from 1600 to 1840. While the major basic foods remained the same, their part in the total diet changed. Americans at the end of the period ate far more beef and chicken than did the first colonists. They used more milk, butter and cream. They also ate more wheat in the form of breads, cakes, cookies, crackers and cereals. The same was true with fruits. Over time the more exotic vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, and numerous root vegetables including both sweet and white potatoes became common vegetables. By the end of this period, many Americans were even eating foods like tomatoes, okra, and sesame, which were unknown to their ancestors. In addition, Americans, like their relatives in Europe, incorporated coffee, tea, and chocolate into their diets as well as more sugar. Along with them came new customs, such as tea time, and, for men, socializing at coffeehouses. Also, distilled beverages, particularly rum, which was often made into a punch with citrus juices, were increasingly used. Basic cooking technology also remained the same throughout the period, and the cookbook gives a sense of how meals were prepared. The open hearth provided the major heat source. As time passed, though, more and more people could afford to have wood-fired brick ovens in their homes. Although the recipes presented here from the first century of colonization come from cookbooks written for people of upper status, by the end of the time period, literacy rates were much higher among men and women. European and American authors published numerous cookbooks that were relatively inexpensive and available, so it is reasonable to assume that those recipes were representative of actual American cookery practices. Many changes occurred to cookbooks and recipes during this period. The recipes became more detailed and more reliant on standard measures, and the recipes were for foods that are less complicated and expensive to prepare. This fact is more a sign that cookbooks were being written for a less wealthy group of readers than that tastes and appetites had changed. The trend toward simple and frugal foods continued up to 1840 and beyond, a sign that readership had expanded as well as an indicator of what the bulk of Americans were eating. As well, recipes that were considered American were developed. All of these recipes are in their original form and have been taken from contemporary published or private cookbooks. The explanations after the recipes give historical information and suggestions if the recipe is vague or if it calls for an unusual ingredient. Dining tips are included as well. Period illustrations complement the recipes.

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