In this study Harvey Levenstein tells of the remarkable transformation in how Americans ate that took place from 1880 to 1930. It devotes special attention to the deliberate attempts of various groups, notably nutritionists and large food processors, to change popular eating habits.

Introduction: The British-American Culinary Heritage

1. The American Table in 1880:
The Tastes of the Upper Crust
2. How the Other Half Ate
3. The Rise of the Giant Food Processors
4. The New England Kitchen and the Failure
to Reform Working-Class Eating Habits 44
5. The "Servant Problem" and Middle-Class Cookery 60
6. The New Nutritionists Assault the Middle Classes 72
7. Scientists, Pseudoscientists, and Faddists 86
8. New Reformers and New Immigrants 98
9. The Great Malnutrition Scare, 1907-1921 109
10. "Best for Babies" or "Preventable Infanticide"?:
The Controversy Over Artificial Feeding of Infants,
1880-1930
11. "Food Will Win the War"
12. The Newer Nutrition, 1915-1930
13. A Revolution of Declining Expectations
14. Workers and Farmers During the "Prosperity Decade"
15. The Old (Restaurant) Order Changeth
16. Too Rich and Too Thin?

Notes
Index