Cookbook Politics / / Kennan Ferguson.
An original and eclectic view of cookbooks as political actsCookbooks are not political in conventional ways. They neither proclaim, as do manifestos, nor do they forbid, as do laws. They do not command agreement, as do arguments, and their stipulations often lack specificity — cook "until brow...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English |
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Place / Publishing House: | Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2020] ©2020 |
Year of Publication: | 2020 |
Language: | English |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (184 p.) |
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Other title: | Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. Democracy: The Recipe, the Cookbook, and the Forms of Politics -- 2. Nationalism: Why States Need Cookbooks -- 3. International Relations: Mastery, Sensibility, and Relational Cooking -- 4. Community: Cookbooks as Collectivity -- 5. Ideology: Food, Fast and Slow -- Conclusion: How Taste Matters -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments |
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Summary: | An original and eclectic view of cookbooks as political actsCookbooks are not political in conventional ways. They neither proclaim, as do manifestos, nor do they forbid, as do laws. They do not command agreement, as do arguments, and their stipulations often lack specificity — cook "until browned." Yet, as repositories of human taste, cookbooks transmit specific blends of flavor, texture, and nutrition across space and time. Cookbooks both form and reflect who we are. In Cookbook Politics, Kennan Ferguson explores the sensual and political implications of these repositories, demonstrating how they create nations, establish ideologies, shape international relations, and structure communities.Cookbook Politics argues that cookbooks highlight aspects of our lives we rarely recognize as political—taste, production, domesticity, collectivity, and imagination—and considers the ways in which cookbooks have or do politics, from the most overt to the most subtle. Cookbooks turn regional diversity into national unity, as Pellegrino Artusi's Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well did for Italy in 1891. Politically affiliated organizations compile and sell cookbooks—for example, the early United Nations published The World's Favorite Recipes. From the First Baptist Church of Midland, Tennessee's community cookbook, to Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, to the Italian Futurists' proto-fascist guide to food preparation, Ferguson demonstrates how cookbooks mark desires and reveal social commitments: your table becomes a representation of who you are.Authoritative, yet flexible; collective, yet individualized; cooperative, yet personal—cookbooks invite participation, editing, and transformation. Created to convey flavor and taste across generations, communities, and nations, they enact the continuities and changes of social lives. Their functioning in the name of creativity and preparation—with readers happily consuming them in similar ways—makes cookbooks an exemplary model for democratic politics. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9780812297126 9783110704716 9783110704518 9783110704594 9783110704723 9783110690446 |
DOI: | 10.9783/9780812297126 |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Kennan Ferguson. |