AMST 285, spring 2015
Food in American Culture
Dr. Bonnie Miller
W-5-58
Email: bonnie.miller@umb.edu (preferred form of contact is by email)
Office phone: 617-287-6765
Office hours: TBA
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Nineteenth-century philosopher Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once said, “Tell me
what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” This quote aptly summarizes the
objective of this course: to study American “foodways” at home and abroad as a
window into the diversity of world culture. Examining how food preferences and
traditions from around the world amalgamate into “American” food culture and find
meaning in people’s lives can tell us a great deal about ourselves and our history:
who we are, where we came from, our past and current social, cultural, and
economic circumstances, and how we relate to others. Foodways are also integral to
the process of creating and sustaining ethnic, racial, regional, national, and
transnational identities. They are impacted by factors of global politics and
economy; patterns of consumerism and lifestyle; trends in advertising and media
culture; and, evolving attitudes toward health, nutrition, and body image.
This course takes a comparative historical approach to the study of U.S. food history,
considering political, cultural, ethnographic, economic, and social factors in shaping
the transformation of American dietary patterns and conceptions of food, identity,
and nutrition over time. It situates American food culture in a global context,
examining the ways that other national cuisines have infused American foodways as
well as how globalization, colonialism, and tourism have led to the profusion of
American food products, companies, and dietary patterns throughout the world.
This course fulfills the International Diversity and World Cultures general education
requirements. It also fulfills a methods-intensive requirement for the American
Studies major. [Pending approval]
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
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To apply the concept of “foodways” in order to explore the meanings of
culture and processes of cultural change
To have respectful dialogue about the differences between students’ own
food identities and those of their peers
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To introduce students to methods of the discipline of American Studies:
historical analysis, media analysis, analysis of historical dynamics of racial,
ethnic, class, gender, and national formation, and ethnographic analysis
To help students learn to see the ways in which historical events, social and
economic change, and patterns of im/migration and global cultural exchange
shape and reflect food preferences and practices in the US and abroad
To help students learn to evaluate different sources of information and
evidence by reading a range of materials, including those of scientists, food
historians, food critics, and journalists
To think of writing as a process and work with fellow students to strengthen
skills in argumentation, critical thinking, and organization of written ideas
ASSIGNED READINGS:
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Jane Ziegelman, 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in
One New York Tenement (2010)
Selection of articles and book excerpts
97 Orchard is on reserve at the library. The other required readings have been
placed on E-Reserve. It is your responsibility to print out, read, and bring to class
all readings placed on E-Reserve. You can access the E-Reserve readings directly on
the course website. The password to access E-Reserve materials is: TBA.
COURSE POLICIES:
Attendance/ Participation:
You are expected to come to class on time having read the assigned readings.
Attendance is mandatory and will be taken. More than THREE absences will affect
your final grade (typically one half letter grade is deducted for each class missed
after the initial three). You are responsible for material covered in any classes that
you miss. You can request class notes from the TA if you are absent. Students are
asked to keep their cell phones and other electronic devices on “off” during class and
to keep them inside their bags. Students found to be using these devices for
personal use during class will lose points in their participation grade.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the act of presenting the ideas or words of someone else as one’s own
without giving proper credit. You must give credit in the text or in the form of a
footnote to any idea that is not your own and is not common knowledge, whether
you use a direct quotation or put the idea in your own words. You commit
plagiarism if you take the words and ideas of another without acknowledgment
from any source, including periodicals, books, encyclopedia entries, Internet
sources, speeches, etc. A plagiarized work will receive a failing grade and further
administrative action will be taken.
Disability Accommodations:
Section 504 and the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 offer guidelines for
curriculum modifications and adaptations for students with documented
disabilities. Students may obtain adaptation recommendations from the Lillian
Semper Ross Center (617-287-7430). These recommendations must be presented
by the end of the Add/Drop period.
Blackboard:
The course website provides access to the course syllabus, course articles, and
resources for the assignments. To get started, go to the website to login:
https://umb.umassonline.net/. Your Blackboard username/password is the
same as your UMass Boston email username and password. As an enrolled student,
AMST 285 will be listed as a course you can access. If you have difficulty accessing
or using Blackboard, you can email bostonsupport@umassonline.net, call the
primary help desk with 24/7 support at 1-855-789-7053, or see the webpage:
http://umb.echelp.org. Feel free to visit my office hours if you would like additional
support. Please make sure to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer (free
download) so that you can read all .pdf files.
You can use the Email tool in Blackboard to email myself, the TAs, or other
classmates throughout the semester. Blackboard emails and announcements
will automatically be sent to your UMB email mailbox, so you need to make
sure you check this email address regularly to receive all class
correspondence. You may opt to set up mail forwarding of your UMB emails to the
address you regularly monitor.
GRADING:
Homework: 25%
Food Log Assignment: 10%
Food and Family History Paper: 25%
Class Participation: 15%
Take-home Final Exam: 25%
Homework: 25%
Each unit of the course has a corresponding set of questions on the course website
drawn from the readings assigned for that unit. You must complete all 7 of these
question sets during the course of the semester. Answers to the questions must be
typed. Each answer must include at least one example from the reading (using a
quote or paraphrase along with your added interpretation). Students must also
include parenthetical citations for their sources (author’s last name, page #).
Answers to each question in the set should be one to two paragraphs long
(minimum of 5 sentences).
Deadlines for each homework assignment are listed on the course schedule. To
receive full credit, homeworks must be turned in on time. If turned in late (at any
point during the remainder of the semester), students can still receive half credit. If
a student turns in a homework assignment on time, but does not receive credit due
to insufficient answers, he or she can revise it and turn it in a second time for full
credit. If the initial homework is turned in late but does not receive credit, the
student may revise it for half credit. This applies to all homework question sets
except for the last, which must be turned in the last day of class to receive credit and
cannot be revised. The last day of class is the final day that homeworks (new, late,
or revised) will be accepted.
Food Log Assignment: 10%
Students will create a food journal writing down all the food and drink consumed
for one week. The journal can be typed or handwritten and must be turned in with
the reflection paper. Students will then write a 2-3 page reflection paper (typed) on
their journal, analyzing their food patterns for the week and considering the
following questions:
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Does anything strike you about how, when, or what you ate and drank during
the week? What are the most important factors in determining what and
where you eat (i.e. taste, cost, family heritage, national background,
convenience, health, moral or religious choices, etc.)?
Was your food mostly home prepared? By whom? Who did the grocery
shopping? How much did you eat out?
What proportion of the food/drink you purchased during the week came
from “fast food” establishments?
How much, if any, of the food you ate during the week resonates with your
sense of racial, ethnic, regional, religious, and/or national identity?
Did the experience of journaling your food/drink intake impact your choices?
Food and Family History Project: 25%
Students will write a paper analyzing the genealogy of their family food background.
To gather information for this project, students will interview at least one family
member (parent, grandparent, guardian, aunt, uncle, etc.) as well as find two
scholarly sources (books and peer-reviewed articles only) to learn more about their
family’s food origins. This project will include three parts: 1) an analysis of the
factors shaping your family’s food preferences and its evolution over the last few
generations; 2) an ethnographic analysis of an important meal (holiday or special
occasion) shared with family or friends; and 3) inclusion of one recipe you would
like to preserve with the project (This can came from a family member or friend or
be one you use yourself. It does not have to be original or made from scratch. The
intent is to include a recipe of a dish or baked good and articulate why it has special
meaning for you.)
Class Participation: 15%
This class is discussion-based. Students will learn by discussing the assigned texts
and forming their own interpretations of course materials. The participation grade
will reflect:
 How well students demonstrate completion of the assigned readings
 The thoughtfulness of the questions asked and issues raised
 Students’ respectfulness of other viewpoints and student responses
Students observed to be using phones, laptops, or other electronic devices for
personal use unrelated to class activities during class will be penalized.
Note: If I sense that students are not doing the reading regularly, I reserve the right
to give pop quizzes on assigned readings, which will count toward the participation
grade.
Final Exam: 25%
The final will be a take-home essay exam designed to synthesize the main themes of
the course. I will hand out exams the last day of class, with deadline TBD. Students
are urged to pick up their final exams at the end of the semester, as they will meet
the guidelines for submission to the Writing Proficiency Requirement Portfolio.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Monday, 1/26: Introductions
Wednesday, 1/28: Theoretical Foundations of Food, Culture, and Society
Reading: Warren Belasco, “Why Study Food,” in Food: The Key Concepts, p. 1-13
Reading: Peter Atkins and Ian Bowler, “The Origins of Taste,” in Food in Society:
Economy, Culture, Geography, p. 272-295
Friday, 1/30: Culinary Tourism
Reading: Lucy Long, “Culinary Tourism: A Folkloristic Perspective on Eating and
Otherness,” p. 20-50
UNIT ONE: BRIEF OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN FOOD HISTORY
Monday, 2/2: Early American Eating Habits (18th/early 19th centuries)
Reading: Arthur Schlesinger, “A Dietary Interpretation of American History,” p. 199227
Wednesday, 2/4: Transformations in the American Diet (19th/early 20th centuries)
Reading: Excerpt from Harvey Levenstein, Revolution at the Table: The
Transformation of the American Diet, p. 30-43
Friday, 2/6: The Rise of the Roadside Restaurant (pre-WWII)
Reading: John Jakle and Keith Sculle, “The Rise of the Quick-Service Restaurant,” p.
20-39
Monday, 2/9: WWII, Food Rationing, and Postwar Abundance
Reading: Lizzie Collingham, excerpt from The Taste of War: World War II and the
Battle for Food, p. 415-434
Reading: R. J. Musto, “Struggle, Strife, and Sacrifice on the Home Front,” History
Magazine, p. 12-15
Wednesday: 2/11: The Politics of the Cold War “Kitchen Debates”
Reading: Excerpts from Cold War Kitchen: Americanization, Technology, and
European Users (2009), p. 1-10, 83-92
UNIT TWO: FOOD, GENDER, AND HOUSEHOLD ROLES
Friday 2/13: Food and the Gendered Division of Labor in the Household
Reading: David Bell and Gill Valentine, “Home” in Consuming Geographies: We are
Where We Eat, p. 61-84
Monday, 2/16: No classes (President’s Day)
Wednesday, 2/18: Food and Race/Gender/Sexual Identities
Reading: Psyche Williams-Forson, “Other Women Cooked for My Husband:
Negotiating Gender, Food, and Identities in an African American/Ghanaian
Household,” p. 138-154
Reading: David Bell and Gill Valentine, “Food: Erotic Possibilities Between Bodies” in
Consuming Geographies: We are Where We Eat, p. 54-56
Due: Unit 1 Question Set
Friday, 2/20: Food as Family/Community Ritual
Reading: Eleanor Wachs, "'To Toast the Bake': The Johnston Family Clambake," in
We Gather Together: Food and Festival in American Life, p. 75-87
UNIT THREE: FOOD COMMODITIES IN WORLD FOOD SYSTEMS
Monday, 2/23: From Production to Consumption: Going Bananas!
Reading: Excerpt from John Soluri, Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and
Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, p 139-148, 152-160, 219225
Wednesday, 2/25: The Transnational History of Pizza
Reading: Excerpt from Carol Helstosky, Pizza: A Global History, p. 48-73.
Due: Unit 2 Question Set
Friday, 2/27: Global History of Coffee
Reading: Alan Theis Durning and Ed Ayres. 1994. “The History of a Cup of Coffee.”
World Watch (September/October): 20-22.
Reading: Nick Rowling, “Coffee Empires,” p. 99-123
Monday, 3/2: Corn: from Farm, to Processing Plant, to Fast Food Joint
Reading: Michael Pollan, excerpt from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of
Four Meals, p. 85-99, 109-119
Due: Food Log Assignment
Wednesday, 3/4: Meat: Cultural, Political, Economic, and Moral Implications
Reading: Carol Adams, “Eating Animals,” p. 60-75
UNIT FOUR: ETHNIC FOOD CULTURE
Friday, 3/6: Food and Immigrant Communities
Reading: excerpt from Donna Gabaccia, We are What We Eat: Ethnic food and the
Making of Americans, p. 51-63
Monday, 3/9: Food and Ethnic Identity
Reading: Susan Kalčik, “Ethnic Foodways in America: Symbol and the Performance
of Identity,” p. 37-65
Due: Unit 3 Question Set
Wednesday, 3/11: Jewish-American Food Cultures
Reading: Jane Ziegelman, 97 Orchard, the Gumpertz Family, p. 83-124
Friday, 3/13: Italian-American Food Cultures
Assign Jane Ziegelman, 97 Orchard, the Baldizzi Family, p. 183-227
Week of 3/16 - 3/20: Spring Break (no class)
Monday, 3/23: Chinese Food in America
Reading: excerpt from Andrew Coe, Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in
the United States, p. 211-251
Wednesday, 3/25: Workshop on Food and Family History Paper
UNIT FIVE: REGIONAL CUISINE AND ITS INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES
Friday, 3/27: What is “American” cuisine?
No assigned reading
Viewing (in-class): “The History of American Cuisine”
Due: Unit 4 Question Set
Monday, 3/30: Soul food, from Africa to America (part 1)
Reading: Frederick Douglass Opie, “The Chitlin Circuit: The Origins and Meanings of
Soul and Soul Food,” in Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, p. 121138
Viewing (in-class): “Soul Food Junkies” (2012)
Wednesday, 4/1: Soul Food (part 2)
No assigned reading (Discussion of soul food reading and documentary)
Friday, 4/3: California Cuisine
Reading: Sally Fairfax, et. al, “Radical Regional Cuisine,” in California Cuisine and Just
Food, p. 107-133
Monday, 4/6: Cajun Cuisine
Reading: C. Paige Gutierrez, “The Social and Symbolic Uses of Ethnic/Regional
Foodways: Cajuns and Crawfish in South Louisiana,” p. 169-182
UNIT SIX: FAST FOOD TRANSFORMATIONS
Wednesday, 4/8: Processed and Frozen Foods
Reading: Melanie Warner, “Weird Science,” in Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed
Food took over the American Meal, p. 1-20
Reading: Andrew Smith, “Frozen Seafood and TV Dinners,” excerpt from Eating
History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, p. 165-173
Friday, 4/10: Case Study: McDonald’s
Reading: excerpts from George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, p. 1-17, 40-43
Monday, 4/13: Rise of Fast Food
Reading: excerpt from Eric Schlosser, “Why the Fries Taste Good,” from Fast Food
Nation, p. 111-131.
Reading: Warren Belasco, “The Eight F’s [that define fast food marketing],” in Food:
The Key Concepts, p. 70-73
Due: Unit 5 Question Set
Wednesday, 4/15: Ethnic Fast Food and Countercultural Resistance
Reading: Warren Belasco, “Ethnic Fast Foods: The Corporate Melting Pot,” Food and
Foodways, 1-30
Friday, 4/17: Fast Food and Labor
Reading: Ester Reiter, "Martialling Workers' Loyalty" in Making Fast Food, p. 131161
Viewing: Fast-Food Women
Monday, 4/20: (Patriots Day) no class
Wednesday, 4/22: Mexican-American Culinary Exchange and the History of Taco
Bell
Reading: Excerpt from Jeffrey Pilcher, “Inventing the Mexican American Taco,” in
Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, p. 130-159.
Due: Food and Family History Paper
Friday, 4/24: Glocalization and U.S. Fast Food Products Abroad
Reading: Ty Matejowsky, “SPAM and Fast-Food ‘Glocalization’ in the Philippines” in
Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World, p. 369-382
Monday, 4/27: American Fast Food in China
Reading: Yunxiang Yan, “McDonald’s in Beijing: The Localization of Americana,” in
Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, p. 39-66
UNIT SEVEN: FOOD AND GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH
Wednesday, 4/29: Food Marketing and the Consumer
Reading: Mike West, “Coca-Cola High,” The Progressive (November 1997): 26.
Reading: Jan Grover, Current Controversies: Food, p. 129-155
Friday, 5/1: Global Distribution of Food Resources
Reading: Excerpt from Amy Guptill, “Food Access: Surplus and Scarcity,” in Food &
Society: Principles and Paradoxes, p. 141-159
Monday, 5/4: Genetic Engineering, Food Safety, and Environmental Impacts
Reading: Jan Grover, Current Controversies: Food, p. 81-97, 102-119
Wednesday, 5/6: Food and Public Health
Reading: Warren Belasco, “A Healthy Foods Portfolio,” from Appetite for Change:
How the Counterculture Took on the Food Industry, p. 218-236
Reading: Greg Critser, excerpt from Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest
People in the World, p. 109-126
Viewing (in-class): “Feeding Frenzy” (2013)
Due: Unit 6 Question Set
Friday, 5/8: The Obesity Epidemic and the Culture of Fat Stigmatization
Reading: April Michelle Herndon, excerpts from Fat Blame: How the War on Obesity
Victimizes Women and Children (p. 21-26, 83-96, 141-149)
Monday, 5/11: Hunger and Malnutrition
Reading: Marion Nestle, “Hunger in the United States: Policy Implications,” p. 385399 (excerpt from Food in the USA: A Reader, edited by Carole Counihan)
Wednesday, 5/13: Conclusions
Due: Unit 7 question set (The Unit 7 question set must be turned in on time for
credit. It will not be accepted late. This is also the last day to turn in any late or
revised homework papers.)
Note: Final Exam to be distributed on the last day of class. Deadline TBD.
Bibliography
Atkins, P. J. and Ian Bowler. Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography (2001).
Beardsworth, Alan and Teresa Keil. Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the Study
of Food and Society (1997).
Belasco, Warren. Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took on the Food
Industry, 1966-1988 (1989).
Belasco, Warren. Food: The Key Concepts (2008).
Bell, David and Gill Valentine. Consuming Geographies: We are Where We Eat
(1997).
Biltekoff, Charlotte. Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health
(2013).
Brown, Linda K. and Kay Mussell. Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States:
The Performance of Group Identity (1984).
Carter, Andre Colin. Genetically Modified Food and Global Welfare (2011).
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth
Century (1991).
Coe, Andrew. Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States
(2009).
Collingham, Linda. The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (2012).
Counihan, Carole and Penny Van Esterik. Food and Culture: A Reader (1997)
Counihan, Carole and Psyche A Williams-Forson. Taking Food Public: Redefining
Foodways in a Changing World (2011).
Critser, Greg. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World
(2004).
Diner, Hasia. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of
Migration (2001).
Fairfax, Sally, et. al. California Cuisine and Just Food (2012).
Gabaccia, Donna. We are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans
(1998).
Guptill, Amy Elizabeth. Food & Society: Principles and Paradoxes (2013).
Helstosky, Carol. Pizza: A Global History (2008).
Herndon, April Michelle. Fat Blame: How the War on Obesity Victimizes Women and
Children (2014).
Humphrey, Theodore and Lin Humphrey. We Gather Together: Food and Festival in
American Life (1988).
Jakle, John A and Keith Sculle. Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age
(1999).
Levenstein, Harvey. Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America
(1993).
Levenstein, Harvey. Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American
Diet (1998).
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Mannur, Anita and Martin Manalansan, eds. Eating Asian America: A Food Studies
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Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1985).
Oldenziel, Ruth and Karin Zachmann. Cold War Kitchen: Americanization,
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Opie, Frederick Douglass. Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America (2008).
Pilcher, Jeffrey. Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012).
Pilcher, Jeffrey. Que Vivan Los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity
(1998).
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006).
Reiter, Ester. Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer (1991).
Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing
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Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001).
Soluri, John. Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change
in Honduras and the United States (2005).
Smith, Andrew F. Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American
Cuisine (2009).
Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century
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Vandana, Shiva. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (2000).
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Warner, Deborah Jean. Sweet Stuff: An American History of Sweeteners from Sugar to
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Warner, Melanie. Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took over the American
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Wilk, Richard. Fast Food/Slow Food: The Cultural Economy of the Global Food System
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Williams-Forson, Psyche A. Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food
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