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How the Potato Changed the Course of World History

Matthew Wills JStor.org
The potato is native to the Andes, where it’s been cultivated for at least 4,000 years. Historian William H. McNeill contends that the potato fundamentally changed world history. European armies marched on what they foraged locally even if it meant peasants starved to death as a result.

food

The Global Love of Boiled Peanuts

Julia Skinner The Bitter Southerner
The story of boiled peanuts is as complex, fraught, and global as the South itself. To acknowledge the complexity, and challenges, of their history is to acknowledge the ingenuity of the people who worked to preserve their culinary heritage.

food

The Sweet History of Lemonade

Anne Ewbank Atlas Obscura
Lemonade became an emblem of the temperance movement. Lucy Webb Hayes, First Lady from 1877 to 1881, bore the nickname “Lemonade Lucy” for her refusal to serve alcohol in the White House.

food

The Double Life of New York’s Oyster King

Briona Lamback Atlas Obscura
Thomas Downing’s Oyster House opened in 1825 in the heart of the financial district. Not only did Downing turn oysters into a delicacy, but he was also the first to dish out fine dining.

food

Black Dinners Matter

Amanda Yee and Soleil Ho Whetstone Magazine
Food was a weapon of control by slaveholders, most often used as a mechanism for domination and exploitation. The story of African American food has also been a story about self-determination and ownership.

food

Food and Culture

Ashawnta Jackson JSTOR Daily
Food is complicated. That creation you love from “The Great British Baking Show? It’s been the subject of arguments over culture, identity and copyright.

food

Seven Foundational Cookbooks That Shaped American Cooking

Ali Slagle Saveur.com
America: The Cookbook author Gabrielle Langholtz shares the texts that helped craft the United States’ regional culinary traditions For her book, America: The Cookbook, Gabrielle Langholtz looked at cookbooks as well as narrative and anthropological books to fully explore America’s culinary history—Little House on the Prairie and the Sterns’ many varied books among them.
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