Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 210
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4422-5345-2 • Hardback • July 2017 • $51.00 • (£39.00)
978-1-4422-5346-9 • eBook • July 2017 • $48.50 • (£37.00)
Tim Miller is an associate professor of history at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas. He previously published his dissertation on changes in the foods eaten in American suburbs after World War II, which explored some of the themes he looks at in this book, including the rise of the processed food industry and changing expectations for women in the household. He writes about all aspects of American food history on his blog Grog to Grits. He is also the author of Barbecue: A History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Cooking in 1800
Chapter 2: The Early to Late 1800s
Chapter 3: The Late 1800s Through 1945
Chapter 4: 1945 to the early 1970s
Chapter 5: The Early 1970s Through Today
Chapter 6: The Future of Home Cooking
Bibliography
As Miller notes, cooking in the American household has radically changed from the country’s colonial past. In earliest days, cooks had to collect wood, light fires, haul water in from the well, and more before they could actually touch food. It took a couple centuries until home cooking was reduced to opening a can or a box. Early American home cooks had only a fireplace, and in many a settler’s abode, it dominated the household, serving as stove, oven, and drafty cabin’s furnace. The advent of food-preservation techniques such as canning and then refrigeration radically changed everything about cooking. By the late nineteenth century, scientists contributed their growing command of microbiology to both detect and prevent spoilage and food-borne illness. This ever more efficient and ubiquitous technology had even greater effect, revolutionizing gender roles in the home and unleashing social forces that continue to resonate. Miller’s microhistory goes from colonial days through the 1960s and will be appreciated by readers interested in American history and in cooking in general.
— Booklist
In American Home Cooking: A Popular History, Tim Miller writes an easily digestible survey filled with over two centuries worth of anecdotes, facts and insights. This is a timely book given the current resurgence of home cooking in the United States.
— Adrian Miller, The Soul Food Scholar, "Dropping Knowledge Like Hot Biscuits"®; author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time; 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner for Reference and Scholarship
How much has putting dinner on the table for one's family changed in the past two hundred years? Mercifully, quite a bit. Anyone who has ever wondered what to fix for supper will enjoy standing next to the stove with Tim Miller as he explores the evolution of food and meal production in the American home.
— Rebecca Sharpless, professor of History, Texas Christian University
American Home Cooking is a lively and accessible introduction to how Americans have fed themselves from the colonial period up through the present. The book delivers even more than the title promises as Miller instructs his readers not only about what his fellow citizens have cooked at home but also about the various strategies Americans have used to escape from cumbersome kitchen duties. Students interested in a crash course on food history will find this volume a useful starting point.
— Jennifer Jensen Wallach, author of How America Eats: A Social History of US Food and Culture