The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society - Hardcover

Janet A. Flammang

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252034902 ISBN 13: 9780252034909

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2009

Synopsis

This book explores the idea that table activities - the mealtime rituals of food preparation, serving, and dining - lay the foundation for a proper education on the value of civility, the importance of the common good, and what it means to be a good citizen. The arts of conversation and diplomatic speech are learned and practiced at tables, and a political history of food practices recasts thoughtfulness and generosity as virtues that enhance civil society and democracy. In our industrialized and profit-centered culture, however, foodwork is devalued and civility is eroding.

About this title

Review:

"Deftly bringing together political theory, feminist analysis, and cultural studies, Flammang uses the familiar world of our private lives and everyday practices with food to interrogate the public life of American democracy and civil society. Thoughtful and creative." --Anna Sampaio, coeditor of Transnational Latina/o Communities: Politics, Processes, and Cultures

About the Author:

Janet A. Flammang is a professor and the chair of political science at Santa Clara University and the author of Women's Political Voice: How Women are Transforming the Practice and Study of Politics and other works.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0252034902
• ISBN 13: 9780252034909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344