ABSTRACT
The goal of this book is to bring together a representative selection of recent scholarly articles that highlight the contributions of food and culture studies to understanding the contemporary United States. It asks five main questions: (1) What is U.S. food and is there a national cuisine? (2) How have U.S. food and cuisine been made and at what cost? (3) How have people used eating, fasting, and commensality to cope with power, exploitation, connection, and identity? (4) How do foodways signify identity and keep cultural traditions and personal stories alive, even under conditions of oppression? (5) How is the spread of the capitalist, profit-making food economy around the globe affecting food quality and access, and what alternatives to corporate food production and distribution exist?
