With PQDT Open, you can read the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.
About PQDT Open
Search
This dissertation reviews the deliberate and evolutionary development of cultural nationalism through food and cuisine, specifically the methods and manners in which Americans during the early Republic conceptualized and produced a distinct national culinary culture. Through multiple forms of evidence including published cookbooks, travelogues, etchings and paintings, nutritional studies, newspaper articles, and essays, Americans and Europeans employed food as a symbolic tool to redefine their definitions of national culture. The production and consumption of certain foodstuffs was indeed an essential component in the process of interpreting the burgeoning American postcolonial national consciousness, often at the expense however of an open and inclusive society. While the current scholarship contends that Americans remained anchored to their colonial British food systems in the early national period, this research reveals a more complicated narrative of identity construction that ultimately highlights a complex ideological and cultural transformation. In short, this work analyzes how intellectual descriptions of American cuisine affected attitudes and perceptions of national character formation in the early American Republic.
Advisor: | Rogers, William |
Commitee: | Boglioli, Marc, Evans, Wyatt |
School: | Drew University |
Department: | History and Culture |
School Location: | United States -- New Jersey |
Source: | DAI-A 80/09(E), Dissertation Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | American studies, American history |
Keywords: | Cuisine, Early Republic, Food studies, Nationalism |
Publication Number: | 13857831 |
ISBN: | 978-1-392-12114-6 |