How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become
"white trash"? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders,
and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we
think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and
what we want our society to look like.
" "
"White Bread" teaches us that when Americans debate what one should
eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class,
immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of
bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet "pain au
levain, " he shows how efforts to champion "good food" reflect
dreams of a better society--even as they reinforce stark social
hierarchies.
In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a
bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, "dirty"
bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was
considered the original "superfood" and even marketed as
patriotic--while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of
all that was wrong with America.
The history of America's one-hundred-year-long love-hate
relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary
efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food
movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to
eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow,
local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early
twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people
to eat a certain food could restore the nation's decaying physical,
moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given
that open disdain for "unhealthy" eaters and discrimination on the
basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, "White Bread"
is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we
talk about food.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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