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107 reviews for:
A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression
Andrew Coe, Jane Ziegelman
3.66 AVERAGE
107 reviews for:
A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression
Andrew Coe, Jane Ziegelman
3.66 AVERAGE
Pretty dry and lacking in overall structure - chapters are just numbered so it was hard to tell what thematic transitions each represented or how to go back and find information - but this made for a surprisingly soothing bedtime read every so often. And a reminder of how good we have it these days with our industrial large-scale production and distribution of fresh, cheap food.... and that jellied bouillon isn’t in style anymore.
Fascinating, well-researched, and extremely readable. Ziegelman illuminates the reality of life during the Great Depression by focusing on food.
This wasn't quite what I expected. I enjoyed the parts about what people are and why, but there was a lot about politics and various charitable ways of feeding the poor that did not interest me. I just skimmed a good chunk of the book. I did like the parts about the actual food and helped me understand why people my grandparents age like certain things and why my grandma had no problem eating exactly what she wants because she wasn't always able too as a child. It was interesting to see what constituted a meal and was especially interesting to learn that ice cream sundaes were an acceptable lunch choice for women. I could go for that!
Interesting look at how government and well meaning people can complicate anything.
The Great Depression was a tumultuous time for the American diet. From food shortages, to crop surpluses that couldn't be sold, to new technologies, everyone had an opinion on what the average person should be eating. This book covers a sweeping variety of topics to set the table on understanding this era and it's on-going impact.
The information in this book is great. I learned a lot. The structure of the actual book, however, is sorely lacking. It jumps around from the 1920s to the 40s, covering everything from politics to deprivation to the dust bowl to home economics and back again, but not in any coherent way. The author would have deeply benefited from an outline and some editing. Either organize it topically, or chronologically... just organize it. This jumpiness makes the information harder to retain and impossible to find by flipping back when I wanted to check a detail.
Tl;dr: Excellent content, needs structure.
The information in this book is great. I learned a lot. The structure of the actual book, however, is sorely lacking. It jumps around from the 1920s to the 40s, covering everything from politics to deprivation to the dust bowl to home economics and back again, but not in any coherent way. The author would have deeply benefited from an outline and some editing. Either organize it topically, or chronologically... just organize it. This jumpiness makes the information harder to retain and impossible to find by flipping back when I wanted to check a detail.
Tl;dr: Excellent content, needs structure.
informative
medium-paced
I found the information in this book to be fascinating, but at times difficult to follow. I approached this book knowing little to nothing about food in the great depression, and I came out feeling more educated yet being unable to put together a real "timeline" in my head of the information and how it came to be.
This book reads as one that didn't spend enough time being edited. The authors often jump around from topic to topic, and I very often found myself saying "they just said all of this back a chapter or two ago. Why are they repeating it as if it were new information?"
The raw information, facts, inclusion of recipes, and pictures are what bring this review up to 4 stars and made me truly enjoy it. But what ultimately keeps it from being 5 stars is the repetition, the disorganization, as well as a lack of a real "big picture" or cohesive "story".
This book reads as one that didn't spend enough time being edited. The authors often jump around from topic to topic, and I very often found myself saying "they just said all of this back a chapter or two ago. Why are they repeating it as if it were new information?"
The raw information, facts, inclusion of recipes, and pictures are what bring this review up to 4 stars and made me truly enjoy it. But what ultimately keeps it from being 5 stars is the repetition, the disorganization, as well as a lack of a real "big picture" or cohesive "story".
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
I'm giving this book three stars because I had to make myself keep reading it. It was well-researched and full of interesting information which helped to put many government policies of the Great Depression into context against the backdrop of one of our nation's longest and most awful struggles but I felt that it was a little disjointed and ended rather abruptly.