Lexual's Library: Food History
- Feb 23
- 3 min read
If you love history and food, this list of books is perfect for your studies on American foodways!
Black American Food History Essentials
The following books are important texts on Black American foodways. My favorites are High on the Hog, Hog and Hominy, and The Jemima Code.
High On The Hog (Jessica B. Harris)
African American Foodways (Edited by Anne L. Bower)
Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice (Toni Tipton-Martin)
The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks (Toni Tipton-Martin)
Franchise: The Golden Arches In Black America (Marcia Chatelain)
Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food (Fred Opie)
Southern Food and Civil Rights ( Fred Opie)
Hog and Hominy: Soul Food From Africa To America (Fred Opie)
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time (Adrian Miller)
The Cooking Gene (Michael Twitty)
Black Smoke (Adrian Miller)
First published in 1973, this book provides a thorough and mouthwatering timeline of food and technology in world history. From the importance of fire in early societies to advances in Arab culture to the public cookshops of yore, you'll look at food with fresh insight.
Why do Americans prioritize breakfast? Where did our ideas about supper and lunch come from? What were women's lunch clubs? How have class and region impacted the American meal? How have processed foods shaped our eating habits? Check out this book!
This book explores how American food habits (healthy and unhealthy) have been shaped by food technology, science, and capitalism. Salt Sugar Fat serves as a sobering balance to fun cultural histories of food, explaining why we have so many health issues.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Eric Schlosser)
This is another sobering book about American foodways that challenged me when I first read it in high school. At the time, fast food represented excess and leisurely income to me-- something I loved to indulge in with my part-time wages. Schlosser's book about the history of fast food companies and the exploitation of workers and migrant laborers (as well as the deregulation of food safety standards) terrified me.
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in The World of Chinese Food (Jennifer 8. Lee)
Chinese-American food history tells the history of Chinese immigrants, who created successful businesses, forged a special relationship with Jewish Americans thanks to a shared existence outside Christianity, and innovated dishes that helped ease xenophobia.
I wasn't expecting this book to be so interesting. If American religiosity and spirituality penetrates every other realm (sports, schools, race, sex, etc), it's obvious that religion impacts food as well. The most interesting parts of this book (in addition toover 75 recipes for things like Mormon Heavenly Funeral Potatoes) is Ward's exploration of Black cults, Black Israelites, and the Nation of Islam.
This is a fun read on the cultural history of American food, examining immigration, technology, gender, and more, creating a rich cornucopia of information! Chapter 7: Food Habits and Racial Thinking is particularly delicious.
American Cuisine And How It Got This Way (Paul Freedman)
This one is formatted and reads like a digestible school textbook, including images and recipes that tell the social history of American food up to the 2010s. This is an invaluable reference guide for any aspiring food historian.
Bonus Book I Want to Read: Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll: How Food Lovers, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New American Profession (Andrew Friedman)
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