Food in the Gilded Age: What Ordinary Americans Ate

This revealing survey of the dining habits of Americans with modest means will satisfy foodies of every category. The Gilded Age refers to the eating contrasts of the rich and poor, but Dirks, emeritus professor of anthropology at Illinois State University, also details how region and race influences both the culinary and nutritional traditions of people across class lines, such as the diets of Mexican-Americans, Appalachian mountain folk, and African-Americans in the South. The seasonality of food, as Dirks explains, is assured on the dinner tables of upper- and -middle-class households because of items grown both locally and internationally, while the poor often endure a lesser quality of consumables sometimes trucked to economically disadvantaged grocery outlets. He contrasts immigrants' traditional dishes with the food of their adopted home, noting that the newcomers frequently preserve their recipes' integrity and avoid domestic products. Informed, accessible, and devoid of editorial comment, Dirks's book of nutrition of "ordinary" Americans at the close of the 19th century is a powerful blueprint of our many national cuisines. (Apr.)