Introduction
Culinary histories are a relatively new phenomenon of just the last few decades. Some of the first historical treatments of food and its preparation began appearing in the 1970s and 1980s, but the coverage was sparse. The 1990s introduced several food histories, but even by the end of the decade, culinary histories were not thought of as rigorous historical research. For example, Jennifer Ruark, writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1999, wrote “A Place at the Table: Food Studies Makes Inroads in Academe, but Critics Say It’s Scholarship-lite.”[1] This cover article of the July 9th issue took stock of the burgeoning field, but also pointed out that many of the authors who published those food histories had to reconcile nay-saying dissertation advisors. It was perhaps another decade before food and food preparation gained traction as legitimate subjects for historical analysis.
In many ways, the cultural turn in history in the late 20th century helped to create space at the table for food histories. Despite the doubters, food histories that explored the cultural, social, historical, and/or political aspects of food production, preparation, or consumption began to be published in the 1990s. For example, Carol M. Counihan and Penny Van Esterick published Food and Culture: A Reader in 1997.[2] Many of the titles that Ruark pointed to in her article were “forthcoming,” but the works were in the final stages of publication. In his 2015 article, Rick Warner pointed out that much has happened in food studies since Ruark published her article in The Chronicle. Warner points to the fact that food-related scholarship is now common in many different disciplines and, indeed, food studies has become its own interdisciplinary field. Extoling, “Everyone is suddenly a ‘foodie,’” Warner pointed to the growth of not only academic interests in food, but “even entire television networks have made the subject ubiquitous in the public sphere. There are countless food blogs, twitter feeds, social movements, and eating trends… or fads.” [3] Focusing on cookbooks to trace some of these trends or fads of cooking, this article examines the cultural foodscapes of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in America in comparison with the UK. In this analysis, I aim to answer: What unique features (if any) demonstrate ideologies of the era that produced the cookbooks?
Historical Context of the 1950s America
As many historians have stated, the 1950s were a fraught period that encompassed many social, cultural, and political changes. World War II, through its concomitant industrial growth and technological innovations, created jobs for the millions of Americans who had been stranded by the Depression. Economic studies of the wartime economy claim that even the poorest incomes doubled during the war allowing a starving America to once again put food on the table. But just as the food began to flow, wartime rationing began. The government propaganda that sought American compliance with the “reuse, recycle, reserve” mentality promised a prosperous post-war period and taught Americans deferred gratification. As Lizzie Collingham wrote, “The privations Americans had put up with during the Depression and now during the war shaped their post-war desires.”[4] And, as promised, the post-war period was one of prosperity, growth, home ownership and new suburban communities.
The 1950s, however, were not just about prosperity and growth; but culture and politics were moving targets. In her article on American culinary culture in the 1950s (1947 to 1963), Rebecca Epstein succinctly summarized the era: “the country witnessed three presidents of disparate agendas and public styles; adjusted from war to peace times in a no longer isolationist nation; and experienced a transformation of popular culture…”[5] And, although America still had its frugal mentality, the culinary foodscapes were forever changed through wartime exposure to world cuisines and the post-war need for women, who had found independence by working during the war, to return “home” and take up her domestic responsibilities anew. [Come back next week for the rest of this article.]
[1] Jennifer Ruark. Chronicle of Higher Education. 7/9/99, Vol. 45 Issue 44, pA17. 3p.
[2] Carol M. Counihan and Penny Van Esterick published Food and Culture: A Reader in 1997
[3] Warner, Rick, The Rise of the New Food History. World History Connected 12.3 (2015)
[4] Lizzie Collingham, Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food. (New York: Penguin Press, 2012). Electronic version unpaginated.
[5] Rebecca L. Epstein (2001) Re-Ordering the Scene: The Hollywood Restaurant and American Culinary Culture, 1947–1963, Journal for the Study of Food and Society, 5:1, 9-29.
