Eating in Eden: Food and American Utopias

Drawing from our interests in utopian communities and religious history, my co-editor Martha Finch and I highlight in Eating in Eden (U Nebraska 2006) American food practices that range from those of colonial English Puritans and Spanish Catholics to those of more recent groups of European Jews and Indian Hindus. The collection of thirteen essays, interdisciplinary in scope, begins with an introduction that provides an overview of food studies and views of utopian life in America.  Other chapters discuss topics as rich and varied as male dining clubs in Revolutionary America and 19th-century women’s colleges, tv cooking shows, vegetarian cookbooks, and food co-ops. The Shakers, Oneida Community and the Amana Colony of Inspirationists are among the more traditional communal groups considered.

Contributors include Phillip H. Round, Trudy Eden, Mary Rizzo,  Kathryn McClymond, Ellen Posman, Jonathan G. Andelson, Priscilla J. Brewer, Wendy E. Chmielewski, Monica Mak, Maria McGrath and Debra Shostak.