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Eating in Eden: Food and American Utopias
Perennially viewed as both a utopian land of abundant resources and a fallen nation of consummate consumers, North America has provided a fertile setting for the development of distinctive foodways reflecting the diverse visions of life in the United States. Immigrants, from colonial English Puritans and Spanish Catholics to mid-twentieth-century European Jews and contemporary Indian Hindus, have generated innovative foodways in creating “new world” religious and ethnic identities. The Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists, and the Amana Colony, as well as 1970s counter-cultural groups, developed food practices that distinguished communal members from outsiders, but they also marketed their food to nonmembers through festivals, restaurants, and cookbooks. Other groups—from elite male dining clubs in Revolutionary America and female college students in the late 1800s, to members of food co-ops; vegetarian Jews and Buddhists; and “foodies” who watched TV cooking shows—have used food strategically to promote their ideals of gender, social class, nonviolence, environmentalism, or taste in the hope of transforming national or global society. This theoretically informed, interdisciplinary collection of thirteen essays broadens familiar definitions of utopianism and community to explore the ways Americans have produced, consumed, avoided, and marketed food and food-related products and meanings to further their visionary ideals.
- GenresFoodNonfictionHistory
296 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2006
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34 people want to read
About the author
Etta M. Madden
6books14followersEtta Madden is the author or editor of four books, which consider American women writers, Italy, and utopian and intentional communities: Engaging Italy: American Women’s Utopian Visions and Transnational Networks (SUNY Press 2022), Eating in Eden: Food and American Utopias, Selections from Eliza Leslie, and Bodies of Life: Shaker Literature and Literacies.
She has also written articles on these topics in Communities Magazine, Commonplace, Early American Literature, New England Quarterly, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, and Utopian Studies.
The recipient of a Fulbright award, Etta has been a research fellow at the New York Public Library, an NEH Seminar participant at the American Academy in Rome, and a two-time recipient of a Mellon Fellowship from the Library Company of Philadelphia.
She teaches courses on American literature, women writers, and utopian visions as Clif & Gail Smart Professor of English at Missouri State University.
She has also written articles on these topics in Communities Magazine, Commonplace, Early American Literature, New England Quarterly, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, and Utopian Studies.
The recipient of a Fulbright award, Etta has been a research fellow at the New York Public Library, an NEH Seminar participant at the American Academy in Rome, and a two-time recipient of a Mellon Fellowship from the Library Company of Philadelphia.
She teaches courses on American literature, women writers, and utopian visions as Clif & Gail Smart Professor of English at Missouri State University.
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July 12, 2018Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz (DC 1996), Contributor
From the contributor:
Perennially viewed as both a utopian land of abundant resources and a fallen nation of consummate consumers, North America has provided a fertile setting for the development of distinctive foodways reflecting the diverse visions of life in the United States. Immigrants, from colonial English Puritans and Spanish Catholics to mid-twentieth-century European Jews and contemporary Indian Hindus, have generated innovative foodways in creating “new world” religious and ethnic identities. The Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists, and the Amana Colony, as well as 1970s counter-cultural groups, developed food practices that distinguished communal members from outsiders, but they also marketed their food to nonmembers through festivals, restaurants, and cookbooks. Other groups—from elite male dining clubs in Revolutionary America and female college students in the late 1800s, to members of food co-ops; vegetarian Jews and Buddhists; and “foodies” who watched TV cooking shows—have used food strategically to promote their ideals of gender, social class, nonviolence, environmentalism, or taste in the hope of transforming national or global society. This theoretically informed, interdisciplinary collection of thirteen essays broadens familiar definitions of utopianism and community to explore the ways Americans have produced, consumed, avoided, and marketed food and food-related products and meanings to further their visionary ideals.
From the contributor:
Perennially viewed as both a utopian land of abundant resources and a fallen nation of consummate consumers, North America has provided a fertile setting for the development of distinctive foodways reflecting the diverse visions of life in the United States. Immigrants, from colonial English Puritans and Spanish Catholics to mid-twentieth-century European Jews and contemporary Indian Hindus, have generated innovative foodways in creating “new world” religious and ethnic identities. The Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists, and the Amana Colony, as well as 1970s counter-cultural groups, developed food practices that distinguished communal members from outsiders, but they also marketed their food to nonmembers through festivals, restaurants, and cookbooks. Other groups—from elite male dining clubs in Revolutionary America and female college students in the late 1800s, to members of food co-ops; vegetarian Jews and Buddhists; and “foodies” who watched TV cooking shows—have used food strategically to promote their ideals of gender, social class, nonviolence, environmentalism, or taste in the hope of transforming national or global society. This theoretically informed, interdisciplinary collection of thirteen essays broadens familiar definitions of utopianism and community to explore the ways Americans have produced, consumed, avoided, and marketed food and food-related products and meanings to further their visionary ideals.
May 20, 2008
okay, this is just shameless sel-promotion b/c i wrote one of the essays in this collection, but its still a good read. how can it not be when its about food?
December 22, 2024
An excellent collection of food-history research. Each essay fits the theme perfectly and they work together to create a beautiful understanding of what it means to eat in American utopias.
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