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About the Author

Ann Vileisis is an award-winning independent scholar. Her books explore our human relationship with nature, food, and the environment through history, providing deeper perspective and insight into pressing modern-day issues. She is the author of Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food mostrar mais Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back and Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America's Wetlands. Vileisis has spoken about her books to audiences across America. mostrar menos

Obras por Ann Vileisis

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Kitchen Literacy reads almost like a dissertation and has the copious endnotes to complete this presentation of research on the evolution of the American meal from colonial times to the present. Historian Ann Valeisis' goal, as noted in the subtitle, is to explain "how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back."

Valeisis begins in colonial New England with Martha Ballard, a herbalist and midwife who kept a detailed diary of her daily life and work. Everything eaten by Martha's family was produced on their farm or a neighbor's. In the next few decades, industrialization -- particularly the advent of rail -- begins to distance Americans from the source of their food, and the process accelerates in the 20th century as more people move to cities and suburbs.

The author provides much detail, some of which can seem repetitive or distracting and warrants skimming. The last chapter -- the prescription for restoring kitchen literacy -- will not be a newsflash to anyone even marginally acquainted with the work of Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, the Organic Consumers Association, the Slow Food movement, etc.: buy organic, patronize farmer's markets, cook, plant a garden and avoid heavily processed foods.

If the reader needs additional incentive for doing those things, Valeisis provides it with a history of food regulation and consumer protection in the 20th century. Reading about the failures of regulatory apparatuses to protect consumers from harmful substances made me want to keep my foodshed as close to home as possible.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Sharon.Flesher | 4 outras críticas | Jul 13, 2015 |
If you've ever wondered how a country once populated largely by self-sustaining agrarians transformed so rapidly into one where many people think potatoes and carrots grow on trees, Ann Vileisis spells it out here. If you haven't wondered about this even a little bit, you probably need to read KL more than most. Recommend.
 
Assinalado
dele2451 | 4 outras críticas | Jun 22, 2013 |
A really interesting and worthwhile read. Vileisis looks at changes in what Americans know about their food and how they know it (basically a shift from first-hand experience to relying on food scientists and food advertisements), especially in relation to social and economic trends (urbanization, industrialization, the growth of the advertising industry, women's changing roles in the home and in society at large). She has an agenda, as the final chapter makes very clear, but she uses documentation rather than polemic to make her points and it's pretty powerful.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
savoirfaire | 4 outras críticas | Apr 6, 2013 |
A carefully researched and eminently readable book. Foodies, history buffs and Americans who want to better understand the social and cultural evolution of their relationship with food will enjoy this book.
 
Assinalado
dschnaidt | 4 outras críticas | Aug 4, 2008 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
3
Membros
195
Popularidade
#112,377
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
5
ISBN
11

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