During WWII, as Canada struggled to provide its allies with food,
public health officials warned that malnutrition could derail the war
effort. In response, the state asked citizens to put their diets on a
war footing through food rationing, menu substitutions, and household
production. Posters asked women and children to “Eat Right, Feel
Right” because “Canada Needs You Strong” while cookbooks helped
ordinary housewives become “housoldiers.” Food Will Win the War
explores both the symbolic and material transformations that food and
eating underwent on the home front and the profound social, political,
and cultural changes that took place in Canada during the 1940s.
Through the development of nutritional policies and official food
rules and guides, the state took unprecedented steps into the kitchens
of the nation, transforming the way women shopped and cooked, what
their families ate, and how people thought about food. Canadians, in
turn, rallied around food and nutrition to articulate different
visions of citizenship. By focusing not only on the production,
consumption, distribution, and regulation of food but also on its
symbolic and cultural meaning, this incisive account of the formative
years of nutrition in Canada links the gendered politics of home life
to the wartime policies of the state.
Les mer
The Politics, Culture, and Science of Food on Canada’s Home Front
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780774827638
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
University of British Columbia Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter