Annotation Offering a sweeping social history of food and eating in America, Harvey Levenstein explores the economic, political, and cultural factors that have shaped the American diet from 1930 to the present. He begins with the Great Depression, describing the breadlines, slim-down diets, and the waveof "vitamania" which swept the nation before World War II, and goes on to discuss wartime food rationing and the attempts of Margaret Mead and other social scientists to change American eating habits. He examines the postwar "Golden Age of American Food Processing," led by Duncan Hines and otherindustry leaders, and the disillusionment of the 1960s, when Americans rediscovered hunger and attacked food processors for denutrifying the food supply. Finally he discusses our contemporary eating habits--the national obsession with dieting, cholesterolphobia, "natural" foods, demographics offast-food chains, and the expanding role of food processors as a source of nutritional information. Both colorful and informative, this chronicle of American eating habits offers a window for viewing a land blessed with an abundance of food and a national diet marked by stark contrast andparadox.

California's Napa Valley is one of the world's premier wine regions today, but this has not always been true. James T. Lapsley's entertaining history explains how a collective vision of excellence among winemakers and a keen sense of promotion transformed the region and its wines following the repeal of Prohibition. Focusing on the formative years of Napa's fine winemaking, 1934 to 1967, Lapsley concludes with a chapter on the wine boom of the 1970s, placing it in a social context and explaining the role of Napa vineyards in the beverage's growing popularity. Names familiar to wine drinkers appear throughout these pages—Beaulieu, Beringer, Charles Krug, Christian Brothers, Inglenook, Louis Martini—and the colorful stories behind the names give this book a personal dimension. As strong-willed, competitive winemakers found ways to work cooperatively, both in sharing knowledge and technology and in promoting their region, the result was an unprecedented improvement in wine quality that brought with it a new reputation for the Napa Valley. In The Silverado Squatters, Robert Louis Stevenson refers to wine as "bottled poetry," and although Stevenson's reference was to the elite vineyards of France, his words are appropriate for Napa wines today. Their success, as Lapsley makes clear, is due to much more than the beneficence of sun and soil. Craft, vision, and determination have played a part too, and for that, wine drinkers the world over are grateful. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.

Abstract: In an effort to respond to growing demands for more nutrition information on the part of college students and consumers, information is presented on food science, research efforts to separate fact from fancy, and the interrelationships of food production, food processing, and food consumption. The opening chapter reviews the development of agriculture and industry and the attendant problems of labor, waste, and pollution. The following sections discuss the nutrients necessary for human health, the risks associated with deficiency and excess, and the psychological aspects of eating. Various forms of consumer protection are described, including nutrition labeling, and standards for food safety, quality, sensory appeal, and allergen content. A discussion of food habits includes cultural, economic, and environmental influences. Three chapters focus on food technology: preservation, energy concerns, food spoilage, convenience foods, packaging, and marketing. The problems of waste disposal, utilization and increase of the food supply, and what the future holds in store for the modern food economy are also addressed.