Historians Benjamin R. Cohen, Michael S. Kideckel and Anna Zeide discuss their new anthology on the origins of modern food with Helen Rosner, staff writer at
“Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food” explores the history of modern food and how it helped to make modern society between the years 1870 and 1930 by examining a diverse array of foods from bananas and beer to bread and fake meat.
From the Publisher:
“The modern way of eating—our taste for food that is processed, packaged, and advertised—has its roots as far back as the 1870s. Many food writers trace our eating habits to World War II, but this book shows that our current food system began to coalesce much earlier. Modern food came from and helped to create a society based on racial hierarchies, colonization, and global integration. ‘Acquired Tastes’ explores these themes through a series of moments in food history—stories of bread, beer, sugar, canned food, cereal, bananas, and more—that shaped how we think about food today.
Contributors consider the displacement of native peoples for agricultural development; the invention of Pilsner, the first international beer style; the ‘long con’ of gilded sugar and corn syrup; Josephine Baker’s banana skirt and the rise of celebrity tastemakers; and faith in institutions and experts who produced, among other things, food rankings and fake meat.”
Benjamin R. Cohen is an associate professor at Lafayette College. In addition to co-editing “Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food” (MIT Press, 2021), he is the author of “Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food” (University of Chicago Press, 2019/2022), a series editor at Public Books, and a former film critic for the Granville (Ohio) Sentinel.
Michael S. Kideckel is a scholar and educator who focuses on nature, food, capitalism, and gender. He is a co-editor of “Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food” (MIT Press, 2021) and the author of “Fresh from the Factory: Breakfast Cereal, Natural Food, and the Business of Reform, 1890–1920,” is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Kideckel currently teaches history at Princeton Day School.
Helen Rosner is the food correspondent at The New Yorker and has been writing about food for more than a decade. Before joining The New Yorker, she worked at Saveur and New York magazine, launched the seminal food site Eat Me Daily, and served as a cookbook editor. Rosner was also the executive editor of Eater. In 2016 she won a coveted James Beard Foundation Journalism award for Personal Essay.
Anna Zeide is an associate professor of history and the founding director of the Food Studies Program at Virginia Tech. In addition to co-editing “Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food” (MIT Press, 2021), she is the author of “Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry” (University of California Press, 2018) and the forthcoming “US History in 15 Foods” (Bloomsbury Press, 2023).
This event was recorded on April 13, 2022.