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Books
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The online guide to ongoing discovery
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History tells us who we are, why we are, where we've been and perhaps even hints at what we can do. |
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Biography is not just the lives of the kings and tyrants,
but in the lives of everyday people and what they do. |
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History is not only about the great events that become the landscape of generations. It is about the thoughts and deeds of individuals who react to those events. |
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Unearthing the stuff of history in the commonplace and the overlooked is a great adventure. |
"I love to discover information about the obscure, unknown, forgotten and neglected -- and I love to share it. If, in the process, I also disprove some conventional wisdom so much the better. Whether digging for a kernel of truth in the history of popcorn or following the global trail of Leo Cherne (the man who saved the world) I've had a chance to learn about the interplay between culture, events, science and people. And, equally exciting, I get to tell the story of what I've learned."
-Andrew F. Smith
Hamburger: A Global History
The
hamburger has been a staple of American culture for the last century, both a
source of gluttonous joy and a recurrent obstacle to healthy eating. Now the
full beauty of the burger in all its forms is explored in Hamburger, a
debut title in Reaktion Books’ new Edible series.
Andrew F. Smith traces the trajectory of hamburger history, from its humble
beginnings as a nineteenth-century American street food sold by vendors, and its
quick appearance on the menus of diners and restaurants to the emergence of
hamburger chains to its triumph
in the United States and around the world.
The hamburger changed American life, Smith argues, and made inroads in American culture, as well as becoming a rich symbol in paintings, television, and movies. Smith also discusses the darker nutritional, economic, and cultural conflicts raised by the hamburger, such as the “McDonaldization” of international cultures.
Hamburger. . . is a juicy and richly illustrated read.
Purchase<
">Andrew F. Smith is the author of The
Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food, released by Greenwood
Press in August 2006, and The Turkey: An American Story,
released by the University of Illinois Press in October 2006.
Andrew
F. Smith
also served as the editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and
Drink in America. For more about
it.
Purchase
The thrill of discovering an interesting person in a
footnote or a dusty article echoes the joy of starting a new friendship.
The more you learn about your find, the more you learn about yourself and
the world in which you move.
More about
biographies
"About
30 years ago," said Andrew Smith, " I was the luncheon speaker at a
conference of history teachers in Connecticut. To make the punishment fit
the crime, I decided to talk about food as a vehicle for understanding
history. I told the attendees how the foods we had just enjoyed affected
history, and conversely, how historical events influenced those foods.
This surprised and delighted the audience. Apparently the were expecting a
20-page treatise on some officially significant but boring topic. Thus was
a culinary historian born. Now 16 books and hundreds of articles later I
still enjoy writing about food almost as much as I enjoy eating."
More about food.
Andrew
Smith is a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. He
serves as the editor for Reaktion Book's Edible Series,
and teaches Culinary History and Food Writing courses at
the New School University. He is the author of 16 books and numerous articles in
both scholarly and popular journals. Smith
has delivered over 1500 presentations at regional, national and
international conferences and has frequently been interviewed in
publications, radio and television. He is a consultant on culinary
history. For the
detailed background information, please click here.
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