Examing the multivocal sources of advertising and prescriptive literature, the author pieces together the complex messages to nineteenth-century women in particular about the acceptable consumption of sweets.
(Elizabeth P. Stewart
New York History 2003)
A unique exploration of the influences of sugar on the cultural and societal norms and mores of the 19th-century U.S.... Despite the inherent levity of the subject matter, Refined Tastes is a scholarly work with an extensive bibiography that will appeal to scholars of American history as well as those interested in family and consumer studies from a historical aspect.
(
Choice 2003)
It is a mine of information that will appeal as much to the historian as to the 'foodie', to the social anthropologist as to the pastry chef... While the book is clearly a fine document of social history, much of it feels as relevant and pertinent today as ever.
(Natalie Savona
World Sugar History Newsletter 2003)
Elegantly structured and beautifully written... As simply an explanation of how Americans became such avid consumers of sugar, this book is superb and can be recommended highly.
(Ken Albala
Winterthur Portfolio 2004)
Wonderful evidence... Woloson's book shows us just how indispensable the history of material culture is to any understanding of consumer culture.
(Elizabeth Alice White
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2003)
Woloson provides an enlightening tale about the social identity of sweets, how they contain not just chewy centers but rich meanings about gender, about the natural world, and about consumerism.
(Cindy Ott
Enterprise and Society 2004)
A fascinating dissection of themes relating to the democratization of sugar and confectionery in American culture from about 1790 to 1910.
(Laura Mason
Gastronomica 2004)
Refined Tastes provides us with a better understanding of the ambivalent attitude we have today toward sweets and sweetness.
(Bryan F. Le Beau
Journal of American History 2003)
[Woloson] does a fine job tracing the development of sugar both as an industrial as well as a cultural commodity. Her account is deftly peppered with details.
(Bryan Wuthrich
H-Business, H-Net Reviews 2004)
A thoroughly researched, exceptionally well-written, and very accessible account of the incorporation and transformation of sugar within American food and foodways in the nineteenth century.
(Susan J. Terrio
American Historical Review 2004)
A new and innovative way of looking at consumer appetites and culture.
(Susan Matt
Journal of Social History )
This is an intriguing, highly original history of the democratization of sugar marketing in 19th-century America. Separate chapters narrate the evolution of children's candy, ice cream parlors, fine chocolates, ornamental sugar works, and homemade sweets. In tracing the various ways that sugar became more widely accessible and more widely used, this book stands within the growing literature that deals with the origins and evolution of modern consumer culture.
(Warren Belasco, University of Maryland, Baltimore County )
"This is an intriguing, highly original history of the democratization of sugar marketing in 19th-century America. Separate chapters narrate the evolution of children's candy, ice cream parlors, fine chocolates, ornamental sugar works, and homemade sweets. In tracing the various ways that sugar became more widely accessible and more widely used, this book stands within the growing literature that deals with the origins and evolution of modern consumer culture."—Warren Belasco, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
