Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (California Studies in Food and Culture) (Volume 7) First Edition

by Harvey Levenstein (Author)

12 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0520234390

ISBN-10: 0520234391

Why is ISBN important?

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 15 versions

Used: Good | Details

Sold by All 2 Know

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Friday, Sep 3 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Saturday, Aug 28

Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

List Price: $34.95 Details

Save: $1.95 (6%)

FREE delivery: Friday, Sep 3 Details

Fastest delivery: Saturday, Aug 28

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

Frequently bought together

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Harvey Levenstein Paperback
$33.00
Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping
by Laura Kumin Hardcover
$15.19
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00.
by Marjorie L. DeVault Paperback
$28.00
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Harvey Levenstein
19
Paperback
44 offers from $4.58
Darryl Benjamin
16
Hardcover
24 offers from $42.00
Laura Kumin
35
Hardcover
55 offers from $3.48
Donna R. Gabaccia
10
Hardcover
18 offers from $2.10
Laura Shapiro
29
Paperback
32 offers from $11.61
Harvey Levenstein
26
Paperback
25 offers from $4.82

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Harvey Levenstein
19
Paperback
44 offers from $4.58
Darryl Benjamin
16
Hardcover
24 offers from $42.00
Laura Kumin
35
Hardcover
55 offers from $3.48
Marjorie L. DeVault
5
Paperback
34 offers from $8.96
Kate Cairns
9
Paperback
15 offers from $18.57
Reay Tannahill
143
Paperback
98 offers from $1.55

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most interesting and informative indexes into the nature of American culture, this book opens the eyes to the pages of American cultural history which are often taken for granted: we are what we eat but we often don't try to understand why we eat what we eat....The book should be on the table of every one interested in food--gastronomically or educationally! Bon appetit!"--"Journal of American Culture"

About the Author

Harvey Levenstein is Professor Emeritus of History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Among his books are Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America, Revised Edition (California, 2003), Seductive Journey: American Tourists in France from the Jefferson to the Jazz Age (1998), and Communism, Anticommunism and the CIO (1981).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First edition (May 5, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520234391
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520234390
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #911,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #76 in Food Processor Recipes
- #911 in U.S. Immigrant History
- #1,299 in Customs & Traditions Social Sciences

Customer Reviews:
12 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		33%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star		15%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Erin

Dated but excellent

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book has a lot of hard work and research behind it, and although I found a few inaccuracies from my own interest in the subject, I would generally call this a wonderful exploration of how the typical American eater changed from a constipated beef- and carb-snarfer who was suspicious about vegetables to a nervous eater who indulges in pseudo-science and obsesses about 100 calorie snack packs. ::sigh:: Anyway, I do recommend it; there were a lot of quirks in the history that surprised me, especially the excellent chapter on baby formula.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Turner

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

great read

Helpful

Lisa M. Yarost

Thorough, and very interesting.

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2009

Verified Purchase

Good book, well researched. It contains the most in-depth history of the Boston Cooking School that I have found.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Irene

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

Brand new. Looking to re-sell it now that my semester is over lol.

Helpful

Jenn

so don't feel bad about skipping around

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2017

In the late 19th and early 20th c, the US was a country with so much food that the biggest problem was trying to teach people to differentiate between types of food and to get across the basic concepts of nutrition.

Up until the early 20th c, it was assumed that all food was the same - that you could eat whatever - and your body would use it as fuel. Then scientists started identifying carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals -- and a whole business of nutrition was born.

This book is about the serious business of trying to understand this information and how to disseminate it to the right people -- so that the work force could be stronger, infant mortality would be reduced, housewives would save money and run their households more efficiently.

Most of the chapters can stand alone as articles, so don't feel bad about skipping around, and about 50 pages of the book are end notes.

What really surprised me was that this book takes a bit of a feminist angle.

I particularly enjoyed the first part of the book - the first chapter or two focused more on cultural values around food, Levenstein manages to articulate changes to women's roles in the home vis a vis housekeeping (the "servant shortage" in the US) and preparing food or being a hostess - along class lines. He even brings up changes in cultural norms regarding the feminine form and fitness. People were much larger - and there were even books for women on "How to be Plump" -- and a picture of "airy fairy" actress Lillian Russell (the "American Beauty") shows a rather zaftig blonde woman, allegedly before she got "fat."

And then Levenstein does something interesting - he touches on changes in the role of middle/upper class women as wives. The married couple becomes a "couple" and are expected to do things together -- instead of it just being this partnership where they raise kids and create a stable socio-economic unit. Leisure had a much greater value and was what most middle/upper class couples aspired to show they were successful.

Women who aspire to a certain status would not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen nor would they want to make the mistake of eating the wrong foods -- they have to maintain a more aquiline form than their predecessors.

The restaurant chapter at the end portrays a fascinating transition in changes to women's roles and the rise of the masses of working class. Overall, I can see how these changes shaped my grandmother (born in 1908) in her attitude toward a woman's role in the home, food preparation, thriftiness and even restaurants. From the aspirational afternoon tea parties to tea houses to department store cafeterias -- there is a continuous line of appropriate food-related social venues for women which were often separate from men for much of the 20th c.

I can't wait to read Levenstein's next book - the Depression wasn't discussed much in this one, but the way he describes it - folks who were in the lower classes had it pretty hard for a few decades before the Great Depression anyway.

One topic that I would have liked to have seen better highlighted in this book is the growth of population overall. Describing the growing middle classes, addressing immigration and the growth of the working class is one thing but the entire population of the US skyrocketed in the 50 year period from 1880 to 1930, from 50MM to 123MM.

Can you imagine how people felt with this huge explosion in population - at the same time as a big industry/technology boom and waves of immigration? It must've been a very exciting time - and also a lot of pressure with more and more people just appearing everywhere.

The big revolution: not all foods are the same; some foods have intrinsic values that you can't see with your human eye (only scientists can) and you should choose food based more on these values than what you feel like eating.

Or, in the words of Michael Pollan, "mostly plants, not too much."

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jenny Huston

Great!

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007

I loved this book, well researched. I wish it had gone into more depth.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful