cover image Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America

Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America

Harvey Levenstein. Oxford University Press, USA, $30 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-19-505543-6

Smoothly written and full of information, this ambitious history sometimes emphasizes detail at the expense of overarching themes. Levenstein ( Revolution at the Table ) begins with the Great Depression, moving chronologically and alternating between discussions of government policies for hunger-relief and the development of culinary tastes. The author resurrects much valuable material: how thiamine was promoted as the ``morale vitamin during WW II''; how Italian-Americans, virtually alone among immigrants, resisted Americanization of their cuisine; how the 1950s were the ``Golden Age for American food chemistry''; how the barbecue boom of the 1960s was the first step to men sharing cooking responsibilities; how Mexican food boomed not in the American Southwest but in New York City. Levenstein's discussion of the ``plenty'' is richer than his account of the ``paradox''; a study of poverty food programs could have made a separate book. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)