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Candy: A CENTURY OF PANIC AND PLEASURE
Author:
Kawash, Samira
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Class:
394.12
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: GT2868.2
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ISBN-13: 9780865477568
LCCN: 2013020053
Imprint: Faber & Faber
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Pub Date: 10/15/2013
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $27.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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viii, 402 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm
H 8.5",
W 5.75",
D 1.3",
1.24 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Booklist Starred Reviews
Kirkus Starred Reviews
Library Journal Best Reference Books
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Starred Reviews:
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Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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Social Sciences/Sociology
Cooking/Food/Beverages
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BISAC Subjects: |
COOKING / History
HISTORY / Social History
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LC Subjects:
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COOKING / History
Candy industry, United States, History
Candy, Social aspects
Candy, United States, History
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food
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SEARS Subjects: |
Candy industry, United States, History
Candy, History
Candy, Social aspects
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Publisher Annotations | 07/08/2013 |
| Candy accounts for less than ten percent of the added sugar in the American diet. And at least it's honest about what it is-a processed food, eaten for pleasure, with no particular nutritional benefit. What should really worry consumers is the fact that today every aisle in the supermarket contains highly manipulated products that have all the qualities of candy. So how did our definitions of food and candy come to be so muddled? 'Candy' tells the strange, fascinating story of how candy evolved in America and how it became a scapegoat for all our fears about the changing nature of food. Samira Kawash takes us from the moral crusaders at the turn of the century, who blamed candy for everything from poisoning to alcoholism to sexual depravity; to the reason why the government made candy an essential part of rations during World War I (and how the troops came back craving it like never before); to current worries about hyperactivity, cavities, and obesity. 'Candy' is an essential, addictive read for anyone who loves lively cultural history, who cares about food, and who wouldn't mind feeling a bit better about eating candy. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 10/01/2013 |
| There's more to candy than meets the eye (or taste buds). In this lively, engaging, and deliciously descriptive work, Kawash fills the gap left by culinary histories that don't consider candy a food, revealing how the American mass production of candy in the twentieth century paved the way for the highly processed--and nutritionally problematic--foods we eat today. For a small, seemingly innocuous treat, candy has a turbulent history and much-maligned reputation. With gusto, the professor and author traces the effects of scientific, business, military, cultural, and domestic developments on candy: from the pervasive (and unfounded) perception of candy as a poisonous threat more than a century ago to its use as a military staple in the world wars and the truth about supposedly tainted Halloween treats. Advertisements, newspaper clippings, and more showcase some amusing and jaw-dropping misconceptions from the past. As nutritional understanding developed, and breaking foods into their nutrient components allowed manufactured foods to become more accepted, new products like sugar-coated cereal and snack bars kept the sweetness but dropped the candy label. Kawash makes a balanced case against accepting ultraprocessed foods at face value. With a helpful heaping of information in every verbal bite, this fascinating social and culinary history gives readers a deeper understanding of the powerful forces at work behind the brightly colored wrappers. Thoreson, Bridget. 416p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 10/15/2013 |
| A history of the creation and consumption of candy in America. In the introduction, Kawash (Emerita, Women's and Gender Studies/Rutgers Univ.; Dislocating the Color Line: Identity, Hybridity, and Singularity in African-American Narrative, 1997) recalls being asked by another parent, upon offering her son some jelly beans, "Oh, so I guess you'll start giving him crack now too?" The author doesn't use this anecdote as an opening to complain about the food police. Instead, she lays out a well-researched, enjoyable history of the manufacture, consumption, marketing and legislation of candy in America, beginning in the 1840s and concluding with an examination of "candification"--the increasingly popular use of candy-making techniques and ingredients in ordinary foods. The comparison of candy to street drugs, though rude, is nevertheless rooted in history. In the chapter "Demon Candy, Demon Rum," Kawash explains the cultural link between candy and alcohol, and in "Fake Sweets and Fake Food," she describes the fears of previously unknown ingredients and adulterated candy that gripped the American media in the 19th century. One of the major strengths of the book is the author's ability to identify historical attitudes toward candy that map remarkably well onto current fears about processed foods, all while avoiding imposing an agenda on readers. Though the subject matter covered is exhaustive--including the sugared-cereal panic in the 1980s, the role of the military in candy manufacture, the rise of the candy bar as a meal replacement, the marketing of candy-making as a potential source of income to women, and more--the book never feels overly detailed or impenetrably academic. Though the subject matter may be fluffy, the treatment is substantive and significant, representing an important contribution to the literature about what, and how, we eat in 21st-century America. 416pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Library Journal | 09/15/2013 |
| "Demon candy, demon rum": both alcohol and sugar have long occupied a fraught place in American culture and consciousness. We just haven't been able to stay away from sweets, and here Kawash (emerita, women's & gender studies, Rutgers Univ.) ably traces the history of candy making and eating since the late 1800s. She chronicles the bigger picture of candy in the United States, examining the emergence of mass-produced candy, the transition from penny candies to the dominance of the candy bar, and the backlash owing to health concerns in the latter part of the 20th century. Kawash concludes with a consideration of "candification," the recent trend of touting fruit-flavored candy as healthy or natural. She pauses throughout to toss in treats such as the history of Halloween and a discussion of mid-20th-century candy marketing and recipe books. VERDICT Topic notwithstanding, this title is no insubstantial confection. Its thoroughness and documentation will appeal to those with an avid interest in the history of candy consumption and American culture, including academics. Courtney Greene, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington. 416p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 07/29/2013 |
| In an extended work of thoroughgoing research without any strong polemic, Kamash (Dislocating the Color Line) traces the evolution of perceptions about candy in the American diet, from rare treat to sin to food. Since sugar, rather than fat, is now largely considered the dietary fiend, a whole host of conceptions about candy foisted on the public by marketing, advertising, and media since the early 20th century are being reversed. Kawash walks the reader through candy's changing fortunes, from the manufacturing innovations at the beginning of the last century, from the addition of the starch mogul, an automated machine that allowed candy makers to create ever more fascinating confections to the use of chemists in order to perfect flavors, to the enlistment of snazzy advertising themes that enticed people to see sugar as energy food ("the calorie was the best thing that ever happened to candy") and good slimming fun. Yet some complained of candy's deleterious influence on children and women, who were considered particularly vulnerable to its pleasures. In her proficient cultural study, Kawash looks at the manipulation of glucose, fructose, and creative derivatives of corn and soy in the ever-more-pervasive move toward processed foods, which blurs the definition of candy. Agent: Kirby Kim, WME. (Oct.). 416p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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9780865477568,dl.it[0].title
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