Lunch: A History (The Meals Series) - Hardcover

Elias, Megan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 144222746X ISBN 13: 9781442227460

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Synopsis

Lunch has never been just a meal; the meal most often eaten in public, lunch has a long tradition of establishing social status and cementing alliances. From the ploughman’s lunch in the field to the power lunch at the Four Seasons, the particulars of lunch decisions―where, with whom, and what we eat―often mark our place in the world.

Lunch itself has galvanized political movements and been at the center of efforts to address poverty and malnutrition; the American School Lunch Act of 1946 enforced the notion that lunch could represent the very health of the nation, and sit-ins and protests at lunch counters in the 1960s thrust this space into moral territory. Issues of who cooks lunch, who eats what, and how and when we eat in public institutions continue to spur activists.

Exploring the rich history and culture of this most-observed and versatile meal, Lunch draws on a wide range of sources:
Letters and memoirsFiction CookbooksInstitutional recordsArt and popular mediaTea room menus Lunch truck Twitter feeds, and more
Elias considers the history of lunch not only in America, but around the world to reveal the rich traditions and considerable changes this meal has influenced over the years.

About this title

About the Author

Megan Elias is associate professor of history at Queensborough Community College.

Reviews

For too many Americans, lunch is a meal one “grabs,” almost an afterthought, something to quickly restore energy when the day’s labor reaches its midpoint. As Elias documents, the noon meal hasn’t always been just a fast feed between morning’s breakfast and evening’s dinner. As soon as agriculture advanced beyond subsistence, lunch became the day’s main, if not only, meal. Medieval monks in Europe honored the midday meal as the day’s primary repast, and in Cairo, merchants and shoppers partook of the first examples of street food. American farmers ate lunch at outdoor groaning boards to save precious harvesting time and yet consume enough calories to fuel strenuous activity. The Industrial Revolution compelled ordinary workers to eat near assembly lines rather than at home with their families, while upper-class managers and financiers downed cocktails and haute cuisine atop the finest napery in what’s become notorious as the “power lunch.” --Mark Knoblauch

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 144222746X
• ISBN 13: 9781442227460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 204