Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America - Softcover

Shapiro, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014303491X ISBN 13: 9780143034919

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2005

Synopsis

Author of the forthcoming What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (Summer 2017)

In this captivating blend of culinary history and popular culture, the award-winning author of Perfection Salad shows us what happened when the food industry elbowed its way into the kitchen after World War II, brandishing canned hamburgers, frozen baked beans, and instant piecrusts. Big Business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious of the new foods--and the make-believe cooking they entailed. With sharp insight and good humor, Laura Shapiro shows how the ensuing battle helped shape the way we eat today, and how the clash in the kitchen reverberated elsewhere in the house as women struggled with marriage, work, and domesticity. This unconventional history overturns our notions about the '50s and offers new thinking on some of its fascinating figures, including Poppy Cannon, Shirley Jackson, Julia Child, and Betty Friedan.

About this title

Product Description:

Something from the Oven In this captivating blend of culinary history and popular culture, the award-winning author of Perfection Salad shows us what happened when the food industry elbowed its way into the kitchen after World War II, brandishing canned hamburgers, frozen baked beans, and instant piecrusts. Big Business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious... Full description

Review:

"A stylish and witty history of women and food. Shapiro brings distinction to the ordinary as she brilliantly redefines an important period in our recent past."

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 014303491X
• ISBN 13: 9780143034919
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306