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America Eats!: On The Road With The WPA - The Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, And Chitlin Feasts That Define Real American Food (2008)

by Pat Willard(Favorite Author)

3.28 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1596913622 (ISBN13: 9781596913622)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: I enjoyed this book because it combines three of my favorite topics: history, travel, and food. In the 1930's, the writers of the WPA went out across America to compile a culinary history of the country. They went to fairs, church suppers, community events, and other events to learn about and document American cooking and eating. The final work, which was to be titled "America Eats," was never published, and the manuscripts remained in various archives in Washington DC and across the country. Pat Willard used excerpts from those manuscripts as the basis for this book. She visits many of the locations mentioned in the original text to see if the culinary traditions are still upheld or if they've changed. The book includes the original text and Willard's reflections on what ... moreshe discovered in the twenty-first century. Obviously, many traditions have disappeared, but others remain, perhaps in a slightly different form. This book reminds me of Jane & Michael Stern, with an extra helping of history and sociology. It reminds the reader of how food brings people together, often across political and cultural divides.
review 2: Some great essays capturing a moment in time (loved the Iowa thresher's dinner story), some too long, and too much focus of the author's travels around the country (which I didn't even realize would be included when I added this to my list). There are whole books devoted to regional food festivals, and while I get that Willard was trying to "recreate" the trail of some of the WPA writers, I just didn't care to read about her experiences so I ended up skimming some. less

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