Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780143034919)

Author of the forthcoming What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (Summer 2017)

In this captivating blend of culinary history and popular culture, the award-winning author of Perfection Salad shows us what happened when the food industry elbowed its way into the kitchen after World War II, brandishing canned hamburgers, frozen baked beans, and instant piecrusts. Big Business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious of the new foods--and the make-believe cooking they entailed. With sharp insight and good humor, Laura Shapiro shows how the ensuing battle helped shape the way we eat today, and how the clash in the kitchen reverberated elsewhere in the house as women struggled with marriage, work, and domesticity. This unconventional history overturns our notions about the '50s and offers new thinking on some of its fascinating figures, including Poppy Cannon, Shirley Jackson, Julia Child, and Betty Friedan.

Author: Laura Shapiro
ISBN-10: 014303491X
ISBN-13: 9780143034919
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 03/29/2005
Pages: 306
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.10w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/22/2005 pg. 32
Ingram Advance 04/01/2005 pg. 135