On a trip earlier this spring, Dan overheard a curious conversation at the airport. One woman was passionately advocating for a natural lifestyle to another while awaiting the boarding process to begin. Firmly opposed to all vaccines and caffeine (“it’s...
Here is The George Washington University historian Trevor Jackson at The Baffler: EVERYONE RECALLS THE SHORTAGESÂ of toilet paper and pasta, but the early period of the pandemic was also a time of gluts. With restaurants and school cafeterias shuttered, farmers...
Michael Weeks is Lecturer of History at Utah Valley University. This interview is based on his new book, Cattle Beet Capital: Making Industrial Agriculture in Northern Colorado (University of Nebraska Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Cattle Beet...
Carla Cevasco is Assistant Professor of American Studies at Rutgers University. This interview is based on her new book, Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast (Yale University Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Violent Appetites? CC: In grad...
OK, I am a bit biased. The Reservoir Tavern is located just outside my home town. I’ve eaten dozens and dozens of meals there. I recommend ordering a pie, a cup of pasta e fagioli (Joy’s favorite), and a side...
I couldn’t resist this piece at History Today. The author is Alexander Lee, a fellow in the Centre for the Study of Renaissance at the University of Warwick.  Here is a taste of his “A History of Pizza“: Pizza is...
Last night I was reading some old posts at The Way of Improvement Leads Home and I was reminded about that time in the 2016 presidential campaign when Donald Trump attacked Ben Carson for being a Seventh Day Adventist. Politics aside,...
Christian James weighs in one more time. Â Thanks, Christian! Â It was great hearing from you this weekend! –JF Saturday at AHA packed in more great programming on archives, digital history, and public history. I started with the Contested Archives panel...
Here is your 1970s nostalgia for the day. Anyone ever eat at Gino’s Hamburgers? Â When I was a kid I remember going to a Gino’s in Parsippany, New Jersey. Â (It eventually became a Roy Rogers). Every now and then the...
The blog of the Museum of American History answers this question with its latest post. Here is a taste: Even before a food supply system was organized, on June 10, 1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Council set the daily allowance or...
Abraham and Mary arrived at 10:30pm and feasted on a menu that included oyster stew, pickled oysters, terrapin, beef, veal, turkey, chicken, grouse, pheasant, quail, venison, ham, tongue, chicken salad, lobster salad, almond sponge, macaroon tart, pound cake, sponge cake,...
Progressive food writer Michael Pollan thinks so and he is not the only progressive who does. There is even a small movement of “punk neo-feminist housewives” who are reclaiming the role of homemaker. Writing at The Atlantic, Emily Matchar argues...
Last week I tweeted (JohnFea1) about Natalie Burack’s Messiah College history honors thesis on 1950s celebrity gourmet Poppy Cannon. (Her thesis director was my colleague Jim LaGrand). A few of you were interested in the topic so I thought I...
Cali Pitchel McCullough is a Ph.D student in American history at Arizona State University. For earlier posts in this series click here. I first read Michael Pollen’s Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals in 2007, just after I […]
I am a terrible eater on research trips. I always start my research excursions with good intentions. I go to the grocery store and buy stuff to create healthy meals. This lasts for a few days and then I find […]
The Los Angeles Times reports on a study that shows how the portion sizes in DaVinci’s “The Last Supper” have been growing consistently larger over the years. While one might think such a study would appear in a scholarly art […]
This afternoon was the inaugural lecture in the Messiah College History Department’s annual Alumni Lecture Series. Since our history graduates are doing such great things we thought it would be a good idea to invite them back and share some...
