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Title: A Square Meal

Subtitle: A Culinary History of the Great Depression

Author: Jane Ziegelman, Andrew Coe

Narrator: Susan Ericksen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-16

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 26 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The decade-long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country's political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats. Before 1929, America's relationship with food was defined by abundance. But the collapse of the economy, in both urban and rural America, left a quarter of all Americans out of work and undernourished - shattering long-held assumptions about the limitlessness of the national larder.

In 1933, as women struggled to feed their families, President Roosevelt reversed long-standing biases toward government-sponsored "food charity". For the first time in American history, the federal government assumed, for a while, responsibility for feeding its citizens. The effects were widespread. Championed by Eleanor Roosevelt, "home economists" who had long fought to bring science into the kitchen rose to national stature. Through the Bureau of Home Economics, these women led a sweeping campaign to instill dietary recommendations, the forerunners of today's Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

At the same time, expanding conglomerates introduced packaged and processed foods, which led to a new American cuisine based on speed and convenience. This movement toward a homogenized national diet sparked a revival of American regional cooking that continues to this day.

Critic Reviews:

"A highly readable, illuminating look at the many ramifications of feeding the hungry in hard times." (Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

Disjointed, Repetitive & Rambling

I started this book with high hopes. The beginning was excellent and the early stories were fascinating. This area of history is important and has much to offer to the understanding of current day approaches to food, assistance and hunger in America.

My problem rests in the nonlinear approach to the writing. Rather than start at the earliest date--the late 1890s and work forward through WWI and into the 1930s in a systematic way--the book jumps randomly through history. We hear about 1918, then 1930, then 1895, then it's back to 1917, then 1931. The authors circle around repeatedly in time and this becomes frustrating and irritating to follow.

What's more perplexing is that there seems to be no reason for this scattered approach. The stories are often repeated and characters reintroduced as new--as if we have not just spent an hour hearing about these events and people already. Odd. This may be due to two authors with differing styles not reading clearly what the other has already written? I will never know. After almost six hours of listening I threw in the towel.

The narration while clear was really too slow. I increased the speed to 1.25 and that was enough to make the reading sound almost normal. Not perfect, but tolerable.

What I would like is that both of the authors and all the editors, publishers and production people involved sit in a room together and be forced to listen to the book. I have a strong feeling that there might be many red faces in the room. Hearing the book read aloud would make very clear the extreme level of rambling and general disorganization present in the writing.

Overall, disappointing for what should have been a scholarly and important entry in the American History genre. If you can stand the nonlinear approach and repetition there are some interesting parts.