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White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf

by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

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20216132,991 (3.48)19
How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become "white trash"? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like. nbsp; White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion "good food" reflect dreams of a better society--even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies. nbsp; In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, "dirty" bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original "superfood" and even marketed as patriotic--while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America. nbsp; The history of America's one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation's decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for "unhealthy" eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.… (more)
  1. 00
    The Cornell Bread Book: 54 Recipes for Nutritious Loaves, Rolls and Coffee Cakes by Clive M. McCay (sgump)
    sgump: See this booklet (or, more perhaps directly, search the Internet) for the fortified "Cornell bread" recipe that Bobrow-Strain describes on pp. 113-14.
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» See also 19 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)
Very much enjoyed this book. Didn't realize how political white bread was. Pleasantly surprised! ( )
  matsuko | Aug 17, 2023 |
This was an interesting little book. It is indeed a social history, as it looks at how white bread has been seen in society, and it also looks at what that mass produced white loaf says about us. How does the white bread illustrate our aspirations, dreams, and hopes as a society? What does it say about class? Where do you belong if you eat it or not? Those are the kinds of questions this book strives to answer.

There are various ways to look at white bread, and those ways reflect where our society has been and where it will go. White bread has been a symbol of wealth, and now (at least in the U.S.), it has become a symbol of poverty, of white trash. How did that happen? This book goes over that. The author looks at the various social dreams that white bread has come to embody. There is the dream of cleanliness and industrial efficiency; the dream of being able to feed more people and, hopefully end poverty (or at least curb it; the dream of military and defense of the nation, where you needed well-fed soldiers and members of society, going along with the importance of nutrition. In other words, you wanted good nutrition because it was the patriotic thing to do, and so on. In looking at each dream or stage, white bread embodies those dreams and symbols.

The author also asks some hard questions. The one that stayed with me, a question I often ponder, is the one of elitism in high end and/or organic foods. Sure, you can get high end fresh baked bread, but only if you have access to a community bakery that draws on high end supplies for its bread baking operation. Poor people in essence are stuck with white bread because that is all they can afford. While there is some critique of this, I am not sure any real solutions are offered other than we need to be aware. Then again, it must be noted the author is one of those people who can afford to buy that high end whole grain bread. Not something to hold against the author, but it has to be considered; it's where he is coming from. The issue of access to good food for all is an important one, and it goes beyond just bread, but illuminating this is the story of white bread.

The book is a fairly easy read. You do get some interesting history of the U.S., history of immigrants, society, so on as well with the bread history. This is a trait of a microhistory, though this one is more social than historical. You get stories of the dynasties that created the great bread making industries. I particularly found interesting the story of Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican baking conglomerate that owns a good amount of brands most people in the U.S. think of as "American." I was aware of it (as a Latino, I am fairly aware of Bimbo), but I am willing to bet many readers may find that interesting as well.

Overall, this is an interesting book. You can read it a bit at a time, and you can learn a few things along the way. I do think it will give you a better appreciation not just of white bread, but of bread and the dynamics of feeding society.

Disclosure note: I won this book from a GoodReads First Reads giveaway. ( )
  bloodravenlib | Aug 17, 2020 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Good book for understanding the history and making of this American staple. ( )
  klockrike | Jul 2, 2018 |
This one definitely had it's interesting parts but, for the most part, I wasn't super impressed. I did, however, really like the author's writing style in that, instead of writing up a chronological history, he broke the book into subjects and went chronologically in each section. That made it super easy to stay on the points he was trying to make.

Reading this made me realize that white bread probably isn't so bad after all. Sort of like the saying that if one thing doesn't kill you, another will. After all, white bread is the best choice for things like grilled cheese, french toast, hamburger and hot dog buns, and the perfect PB&J sandwich.

I thought it was neat that the author is currently living 20 minutes from our old town in Oregon. He teaches at the college where friends and family have gone and discusses the area in ways that are familiar to me.

I was really disgusted at his descriptions of the filthy conditions in early bakeries. YUCK! Also, I do not relate at all to the "white trash party" of the 2000s that he describes. Those were the years of my 20s---but maybe I was just too busy having kids to pay attention.

I was super annoyed with his ending thoughts. He spent 180 pages giving a pretty objective history and then spent the last few going off on fermentation. Who's to say we're not going to get an updated version in 50 years that decries the fermenting craze? All of a sudden there's a problem to solve? I think he would have done good to leave his "answer to the problem" out of it---especially since he didn't really spend any time presenting a problem to begin with.

I'll finish this JE with my favorite "bread memory". When my brother and I were grade schoolers in the late 80s, my mom, who was always on some weird diet kick, would buy her "health nut bread". (We had to stay out of this and eat the cheap .69 white bread, btw). Anyway, she'd take two pieces of health nut bread and put them together and bite into them like a sandwich. She'd make all kinds of "mmm" noises and tell us how great her "sandwich" was. We all knew it was just two pieces of bread. She would tell us that she was tricking her mind into believing there was meat or peanut butter in between the slices, when really there was nothing. I'll never forget that. Crazy wonderful mom. ( )
  lostinavalonOR | Feb 25, 2014 |
White Bread is an informative look at the changing view of industrial white bread from the late 19th century to the 21st. It was interesting to see how ideas of bread reflected the greater societal changes. The author divides his book into chapters looking at how different ideas – of purity, control and abundance, health, strength, peace and security, resistance and status – affected how white bread was seen. The chapters tend to move chronologically but sometimes things seem a bit shoehorned into their respective sections. Also, while some of the author’s personal experiences are relevant, others are more of a tangent. I certainly learned a lot though and it made me think about where some of my ideas about food came from.

In a short introduction, the author points to the importance of bread through Western history. He then describes the current food trend of getting local-organic-artisan etc. and how it is a mark of status. In describing the ideas of bread, the author mentions that there is always a downside. Sometimes his negatives are just quickly alluded to in a couple sentences, as if he had to add it in for completeness sake.

In Dreams of Purity and Contagion, he looks at the change from the mid-19th c to the early 20th. Initially baked at home, bread quickly became something that was bought from large corporations. The Pure Foods movement of the early 20th c. targeted small bakers who were often immigrants seen as dirty and dangerous. Though the crusaders got regulations passed, it meant that control of bread baking was done only by large companies. The section on Control and Abundance looks at sliced bread and industrial achievements in making bread. I thought this one was a bit of a stretch.

The section on Health and Discipline features an interesting character, Sylvester Graham, who thought that eating well could cure all health problems. His recommendation for home-baked whole grain bread and fruits and vegetables sounds familiar – he is sometimes credited as the start of the vegetarian movement. Graham’s dream of a rural home and family growing their own food was idealistic but was built on exclusion of certain groups and called for women’s labor. Alfred McCann was fervently anti-white bread though his ideas were built on some shoddy science. Bernarr MacFadden promoted a Graham-like diet, but linked it to ideas of self-discipline and vigor. Throughout the book, the debate over whether white bread is healthy goes through various shifts. Bobrow-Strain relates these ideas to the current craze for gluten-free eating. He also links such ideas to the negative ones of racism and blame for those who aren’t eating right.

The interesting section on Strength and Defense relates the changes that occurred during World War II. White bread regularly began to be fortified and the author goes into all the politicking and maneuvering that happened. After the war, he quotes advertisements, newspapers and people extolling the power of white bread. White bread, it was implied, produced strong boys who could defend the country from Communism. This happened even as people found that the taste of white bread wasn’t appealing. Dreams of Peace and Security was also a good chapter, looking at the bread sent to Europe after the devastation of World War II, the attempts to get the Japanese to eat more bread and the start of the bread industry in Mexico. While the development in Mexico was part of the larger Green Revolution, the author points to the nuances that actually led to increased hunger and inequality. On how white bread became an insult – it started with countercultural ideas of natural food and food not churned out by the big corporations. However, the health movement has been somewhat co-opted by corporations again (though the author points to some good large-scale bakeries) and the denigration of white bread has led to class separation. His final recommendations are a bit puzzling. Despite some criticisms, an interesting and informative book that made me think. ( )
2 vote DieFledermaus | Sep 24, 2012 |
Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)
As Aaron Bobrow-Strain makes clear in his epically well-researched White Bread, our culture’s tendency to focus what we as individuals put in our mouths often goes along with classism and xenophobia. Just as whole wheat acolytes pity white-trash white-bread eaters, and gluten-free converts showcase their discipline through vegetables and lean proteins, so, too, did turn-of- the-century crusaders attempt to spread the gospel of good food to less enlightened masses.
added by zhejw | editSlate, Libby Copeland (May 9, 2012)
 
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Supermarket white bread can pick up difficult bits of broken glass, clean typewriter keys, and absorb motor oil spills. Squeezed into a ball, it bounces on the counter. Pressed into my palate and revealed in a big gummy grin, it gets giggles from my kids, who can also used it to sculpt animal shapes. But should they eat it? Among its two dozen ingredients, the loaf on my desk contains diammonium phosphate, a yeast nutrient and flame retardant produced when ammonia and phosphoric acid react. Is this stuff even food?
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How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become "white trash"? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like. nbsp; White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion "good food" reflect dreams of a better society--even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies. nbsp; In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, "dirty" bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original "superfood" and even marketed as patriotic--while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America. nbsp; The history of America's one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation's decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for "unhealthy" eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.

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