Customer Reviews

Vegetarian America: A History

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This book is facinating. What a treasure!
If you are a vegetarian you will love this book.You will be surprised and in awe of those who have ventured the path before you.
Not a vegetarian but have a love for history especially presented in an entertaing and informative manner? If so, you will find this book rich with facinating information that can not be found anywhere in one volume. The first chapter for example, grabs the reader by describing the vegetarian path of our dear and beloved Ben Franklin.
This book is a must for both vegetarians and lovers of history.

The Iacobbos' book is an excellent introduction to the vegetarian movement in the United States. The authors adroitly blend a sociological approach to vegetarianism with colorful, informative sketches of the lives of major historical figures in the movement from William Alcott, Sylvester Graham and John Harvey Kellogg to contemporary advocates of vegan and raw food dietetic practices and animal rights crusaders. The authors weave together various threads of health-related social reformism of the 19th Century such as natural hygiene, anti-tobacco and temperance movements along side vegetarianism in an intriguing and well-researched book. Students, culinary historians, and general readers alike will be well served by this source.

Karen and Michael Iacobbo are brilliant writers, tenacious
researchers, scribes of compassion whose pens are magic wands
touching all hearts by enlivening the vegetarian past of America. They describe the Bible Christian Church whose pastors Metcalfe and Cowherd had names which perhaps sparked their consciousness, the poetry of John Harvey Kellogg, MD, the dedicated life of Sylvester
Graham (after whom Graham crackers are named), the feminist
activism of Connie Salamone for female chickens and cows
who are in prison, the passion of Ellen G White and other
Seventh Day Adventists, the power of Srila Prabhupad whose
Hare Krishna movement has given out trillions of free vegetarian
meals around the world.

They delineate ethical, health, energy, environment, esthetic
and other reasons to take the plunge into a nonviolent diet.
Vegetarians now receive life insurance discounts as the average
abstainer from flesh lives 7 years longer.

The Iacobbo's cover Alex Hershaft, founder of the Great American Meatout,
PETA activists, Dudley Giehl, author and founder of Animal
Liberation in NYC, raw vegetarian meals for Congress, and
thousands more activists.

This poster has one point of separation, believing that
vegetarian diet began not with Pythagoras and the Greeks
but with Rama, considered by a billion Hindus to be the
first Avatar, about whose Spirit of which vegetarianism
was a part, the Ramayana was written 20,000 years ago.

Famous vegetarians include Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Susan B
Anthony, Van Gogh, Da Vinci (a fruitarian), Tolstoy,
Einstein, Ramanujan. The vegetarian community, some estimate,
is now a billion souls in the world.

This poster put 2 books in her vacation satchel. This was one
of them.

Vegetarian America: A History is a most entertaining history of the practice of vegetarianism in the United States, from the late 1700s to the present. Defying the notion that American vegetariasm sprang solely from the 1960's radical counterculture, Vegetarian America examines movements from a wide variety of eras, and the physicians, socialites, feminists and other prominent figures who embraced it, from Johnny Appleseed and the Bible Christians to John Harvey Kellogg and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Exploring motives that ranged from religious movements to concern about animal rights to nutritional discoveries, Vegetarian America is a truly amazing, deftly researched and succinctly presented tour of the side of America that is not so commonly seen amid the thousands of turkey, beef, and ham commercials.

This lucidly written book corrects, in the US context, a serious flaw in most histories: the trivialization or omission of vegetarianism, a healthy, compassionate and environmentally sustainable way of life that has been adopted since ancient times by people of highly diverse beliefs and cultures around the world. Karen & Michael Iaccobo make this overlooked history come alive through well-documented details. The book shows repeatedly the longstanding ties between vegetarianism and social justice causes such as women's rights. As a vegetarian myself, I felt glad and proud to learn that I am a part, even though a small one, of this large and still-unfolding story. Even nonvegetarians may find it interesting and informative.

"Vegetarian America" is an interesting history of the vegan/vegetarian movement in the United States. Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May (Little Women) was a proponent of animal rights/vegetarianism, running (albeit briefly) the Fruitlands Commune in Massachusetts. Sylvester Graham, inventor of Honey Maid Graham Crackers, 4.8-Ounce Packages (Pack of 27), espoused celibacy and vegetarian diets. John Harvey Kellogg, a vegetarian Adventist whose name adorns many a cereal box (Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Cereal, 23-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 4)) saw the vegetarian diet as the path to health. Seventh-Day Adventists, led by Ellen G. White, who spent her final days in the Napa Valley, were key proponents of meatless diets. In the progressive era, many vegetarians/vegans were socialists... as are many today. One of the most prominent preachers of the vegetarian diet, Leo Tolstoy (Forbidden Words: On God Alcohol Vegetarianism and Violence (Free Age Press Centenary Editions)) was an influence on American vegetarians. No wonder when the US Postal Service launches its stamps of famous vegetarians, Tolstoy will be among them- along with Natalie Portman, Cesar Chavez, Ellen DeGeneres, and Morrissey.

"Vegetarian America" also touches on the present day with Ingrid Newkirk of PETA (I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA), Dr. John McDougall who runs a vegetarian health clinic in Santa Rosa (The Mcdougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less) and has his own line of products, as well as Howard Lyman,a former rancher (MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat).

It's good as an overview, it shows the little-known history of Christian vegetarianism. The discussion of the present day isn't quite as insightful. "Vegetarian America" is a delicious read!