A Short History of the American Stomach (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "In the year 2000 an American Cinco de Mayo celebration featured the world's largest taco, fashioned from nine hundred pounds of meat..." (more)
Key Phrases: triploid oyster, certified kosher, Short History of the American Stomach, Stan Allen, Food Network (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kaufman, an English professor at New York's City University, pursues a hip, journalistic approach to America's all-consuming relationship to the gut, from Puritan rituals of fasting to the creation of the Food Network. Kaufman maintains that the feast-fast syndrome that torments America—obesity, anorexia, overeating, dieting, fads and cures, gastroporn, pollution and purity of food, and self-sufficiency—all originate from our understanding of virtue and vice, first established by the Puritans. Indeed, these first settlers held that the stomach's equilibrium reflected one's spiritual state, and the process of digestion maintained the body's intimate fine-tuning between good and evil. Days of fasting were declared as ways of seeking spiritual guidance, and purges and emetics used to expunge evil and corruption from the system, much as today's advocates of raw foods and unpasteurized milk press their enzyme cures. To demonstrate examples of the ethics of eating, Kaufman discusses dietary restrictions such as kosher foods and, conversely, the lifting of all restrictions by the primal culinary tastes nurtured in the Wild West. Kaufman traces dieting to Ben Franklin's obsession with the virtue of temperance and offers myriad examples of how certain diets (e.g., vegetarianism, single-substance eating) were intended to effect one's transformation from within. With a final paean to endangered favorites such as bananas and oysters, Kaufman digresses forgivingly in this occasionally incongruous though entertaining study. (Feb.)
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Review

PRAISE FOR A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN STOMACH

“This rollicking survey of our national food manias from Cotton Mather (‘Look after thy stomach’) to Rachael Ray is amiably peripatetic.”—New York Observer

“Witty and polemical . . . [Kaufman] makes some valuablepoints about how the stomach influences the waysAmericans view themselves.”—Los Angeles Times

 

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt (February 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015101194X
• ISBN-13: 978-0151011940
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #492,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally some perspective on the American Foodie Revolution, February 12, 2008

By	Tristia (New York City) - See all my reviews

In a concise, rollicking and eloquent study, Kaufman manages to bring to bear an immense body of historical research and sharp journalistic chops on the huge, convoluted subject of America's food fixations. By showing us how every diet craze and alimentary fad of the moment in fact represents an eternal recurrence of the same in American gustatory history, he allows us to make out the patterns in our approach to eating. By getting beyond the "food fight" element in all the raging debates about what is and isn't right to eat, he provokes us to think harder about the larger political/theological/aesthetic implications of American appetite as that consumes public attention at home--and chews its way through the world at large. This is one book that makes you think less about what you eat than about how you eat it...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not another food book --, February 12, 2008

By	Omnivore "Feed Me" (The world is my oyster!) - See all my reviews

- and what a relief! This is one of those books you never knew you wanted until you had it in your hands. Kaufman's sense of history is direct, keen, and alive, informed by a sly, philosophical wit, and presented with a true sensualist's love of his subject. The result is snappy, readable, and laced with a profound, yet hilarious, understanding of Brillat-Savarin's often-misquoted, "Dites-moi ce que vous mangez et je vous dirai qui vous êtes" -- accurately translated by the immortal M.F.K. Fisher (who would have held this volume close to her heart) as, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." Kaufman shows us, with clarity and charm, how that aphorism works in both directions, always has, and always will.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lots of food books are wise--this one is witty!, February 14, 2008

By	E. Beier - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of those rare books that's nimble enough to move fast and be read in a couple of sittings, but smart enough to actually give some much-needed perspective on its subject, which is a big one: what we eat--and what we don't eat--and why. If FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT explained a great deal about French culture, viewed through the gustatory behavior of its female citizens, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN STOMACH explains us. Whether you are an epicure dreaming of the first morels of spring, or pretty happy with the new three-course $9.99 menu at Applebee's, Kaufman's book will delight you.