Amy Bentley

Eating for victory : food rationing and the politics of domesticity

Victory gardens, ration books. While men fought overseas, women fought the war at home, by going to work and, more subtly, by feeding their families. Mandatory food rationing during World War II challenged, for the first time, the image of the United States as a land of plenty and collapsed the boundaries between womens public and private lives by declaring home production and consumption to be political activities.

Eating in Class Gastronomy, Taste, Nutrition, and Teaching Food History

In May to July 2010, food historians from across the world gathered virtually (as a Google group) to share experiences of teaching food history. The forum that follows is an edited version of our discussion. The complete, unedited version of our conversation will remain available for public view at www.groups.google.ca/group/rhrradicalfoodways. We encourage Radical History Review readers, students and teachers alike, to continue these discussions online. Food history classes have become increasingly commonplace in history curriculums, yet they are still rare enough that they illicit comments and occasional laughter and derision. While exciting, innovative, and likely to fill a lecture hall, food history classes, as comparatively recent and unexpected offerings, carry a greater burden of pedagogical proof. As our forum suggested, in a range of academic settings, food historians, unlike other scholars, must demonstrate the academic merit of their classes — long before they walk into the classroom door. Despite (or maybe because of) obvious student demand, we cannot depend on presuppositions of significance.

The frontiers of food studies

From the First Lady’s organic garden to policy proposals that would tax soda consumption to Julia Robert’s meal-based healing on the big screen, food is a site of American political, social and popular fixation. This, then, is a cultural moment when food studies scholars have an opportunity to stretch beyond the archive, the text, or the performance and say something about food issues. A recent panel at the Association for the Study of Food and Society drew several food studies scholars together to consider

FCS Editors’ Roundtable: Reflections on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Journal

Abstract To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the journal Food, Culture and Society, current editor Amy Bentley and four of the previous editors: Alex McIntosh (1998–2003), Warren Belasco (2004–2008), Ken Albala (2008–2013), and Lisa Heldke (2008–2013) discuss the history of the journal. Topics include the beginning, growth and evolution of the journal, its place vis-à-vis the field of food studies, and prognostications for the future.