From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals

Haber selects different aspects of American life from which to analyze our relationship to food. Some of her choices are intriguing, such as the Irish Potato Famine, which sent floods of immigrants to the US, and sent at least one American reformer to Ireland to try to help feed people. Gently humorous--particularly in the chapter about food reformers--always interesting, this book combines cookery with sociology.

Engaging collection of food history essays. Haber draws on cookbooks, memoirs and other archival sources to tackle a number of topics, most of which I hadn't known or thought much about. (I most enjoyed learning about the Harvey Girls and the improvement of food along the railroads -- which also made me think, with a sigh, of Terry Pratchett's last book "Raising Steam.") I only wished the pieces weren't as short -- most of the subjects seem like they're worth a longer article or even a book of their own.

Funky history of food in the U.S.- but not necessarily chronological. I enjoyed the discussion of the horrible food in the Roosevelt White House and how the Harvey girls came into being.