Description
Book SynopsisFood consumption is a significant and complex social activity - and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. This book explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care.
Trade Review"Bentley, author of Eating for Victory, has meticulously scoured the literature on infant nutrition and presented a very fluid, flowing, and engrossing account of the history of baby food over the past century." -- R. A. Hoots CHOICE "An important testimony to the multifaceted processes that shape why Americans buy what they buy. Inventing Baby Food is a welcome addition to the study of American cultural history." Journal of American History "Meticulously researched with sources ranging from company advertisements to industry statistics, Inventing Baby Food makes important contributions to American cultural history and the histories of business, consumerism, and food culture." -- Deirdre Clemente Journal of American History "An exciting contribution to food studies and cultural studies." Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction 1. Industrial Food, Industrial Baby Food: The 1890s to the 1930s 2. Shifting Child-Rearing Philosophies and Early Solids: The Golden Age of Baby Food at Midcentury 3. Industrialization, Taste, and Their Discontents: The 1960s to the 1970s 4. Natural Food, Natural Motherhood, and the Turn toward Homemade: The 1970s to the 1990s 5. Reinventing Baby Food in the Twenty-First Century Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
