Combining the study of food culture with gender studies and
using perspectives from historical, literary, environmental, and
American studies, Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt examines what southern
women's choices about food tell us about race, class, gender, and
social power.
Shaken by the legacies of Reconstruction and the turmoil of the
Jim Crow era, different races and classes came together in the
kitchen, often as servants and mistresses but also as people with
shared tastes and traditions. Generally focused on elite whites or
poor blacks, southern foodways are often portrayed as stable and
unchanging-even as an untroubled source of nostalgia. A Mess of
Greens offers a different perspective, taking into account
industrialization, environmental degradation, and women's increased
role in the work force, all of which caused massive economic and
social changes. Engelhardt reveals a broad middle of southerners
that included poor whites, farm families, and middle- and
working-class African Americans, for whom the stakes of what
counted as southern food were very high.
Five "moments" in the story of southern food-moonshine, biscuits
versus cornbread, girls' tomato clubs, pellagra as depicted in mill
literature, and cookbooks as means of communication-have been
chosen to illuminate the connectedness of food, gender, and place.
Incorporating community cookbooks, letters, diaries, and other
archival materials, A Mess of Greens shows that choosing
to serve cold biscuits instead of hot cornbread could affect a
family's reputation for being hygienic, moral, educated, and even
godly.
eISBN: 978-0-8203-4187-3
Subjects: Anthropology, Sociology
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