Global appetites : American power and the literature of food

Global Appetites explores the importance of industrial agriculture and countercultural food movements to globalization, and argues that the modern food system is crucial to conceptions of U.S. global power since the First World War. The book centers on the "literature of food" - a body of work that comprises literary realism, late modernism, and magical realism along with culinary writing, food memoir, and advertising. Through analysis of texts ranging from Willa Cather's novel O Pioneers ! (1913) to Novella Carpenter's nonfiction work Farm City (2009), Carruth argues that stories about how the United States cultivates, distributes, and consumes food imbue it with the power to transform social and ecological systems around the world. Lively and accessible, this interdisciplinary study will appeal to readers interested in American literature and culture as well as those interested in food writing, food policy, agriculture history, social justice, and the environmental humanities. "Global Appetites explores how industrial agriculture and countercultural food movements underpin US conceptions of global power in the century since the First World War. Allison Carruth's study centers on what she terms the 'literature of food' -- a body of work that comprises literary realism, late modernism and magical realism along with culinary writing, food memoir and advertising. Through analysis of American texts ranging from Willa Cather's novel O Pioneers! (1913) to Novella Carpenter's non-fiction work Farm City (2009), Carruth argues that stories about how the United States cultivates, distributes and consumes food imbue it with the power to transform social and ecological systems around the world. Lively and accessible, this interdisciplinary study will appeal to scholars of American literature and culture as well as those working in the fields of food studies, food policy, agriculture history, social justice and the environmental humanities"--Provided by publisher "This literary study explores how agribusiness, industrial agriculture, and countercultural food movements underpin modern American conceptions of global power"-- "Global Appetites explores how industrial agriculture and countercultural food movements underpin U.S. conceptions of global power in the century since the First World War. Allison Carruth's study centers on what she terms the "literature of food"--A body of work that comprises literary realism, late modernism, and magical realism along with culinary writing, food memoir, and advertising"-- Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: the power of food; 2. Rural modernity: Willa Cather and the rise of agribusiness; 3. 'Luxury feeding' and war rations: food writing at midcentury; 4. Supermarkets and exotic foods: Toni Morrison's 'chocolate eater'; 5. Postindustrial pastoral: Ruth Ozeki and the new muckrakers; 6. Conclusion: food writing in the age of information; Bibliography; Notes; Index Global Appetites explores the extent that agribusiness, industrial agriculture and countercultural food movements underpin American conceptions of global power. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to scholars of American literature and culture as well as those working in fields of food studies, food policy, agriculture history, social justice and environmental humanities. "This literary study explores how agribusiness, industrial agriculture, and countercultural food movements underpin modern American conceptions of global power"-- Provided by publisher