HISTORY 3410 (CRN 16189) Feasts, Famines and Farmers’ Markets: The History of Food Professors Jeffrey Trask and Lela Urquhart Georgia State University Spring 2016 Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:50­4:35
Aderhold 323 4 Credits Office Hours​: Jeffrey Trask: Mondays 2:00­4:00
Lela Urquhart: Mondays 3:00­4:00, Tuesdays 10:00­11:00 25 Park Place, Rm 2110
25 Park Place, Rm 2010 404­413­5269
404­413­5208 [email protected]
[email protected] Andy Greenway (Writing Consultant): Mondays and Wednesdays, by appointment [email protected] Course Description What does soup have to do with labor and human rights in 16​th​­century France? Why did the ancient Romans pass laws about how many chickens could be served at a dinner party? How did Chicago change the farming landscape of the US? This course examines some of the ways that people have historically used food, cuisines, and eating to organize and engage with their social worlds. It also introduces students to the ways in which food has sparked debates over health, industrialization, labor, and power structures. Looking at the way food has been produced, advertised, consumed and celebrated, it considers a wide range of topics, including: the history of cookbooks, public eating and restaurants, the history of agriculture from its origins to “urban farms,” hunger, food taboos, global networks of food production, disordered eating and modern food movements. Course Objectives ­ To introduce students to food as a category of historical analysis and to the role of food in the development of world civilizations ­ To examine the historical relationship between food production and consumption across different temporal and geographical frameworks ­ To understand the interchangeability between urban and rural economies as they relate to agriculture, cities, and markets ­ To consider the ways in which food and taste have shaped cultural identity across categories of gender, race, and class ­ To apply a historical understanding of the relationship between food and culture to current debates and trends surrounding the politics of food 1 ­ To learn how to make effective comparative analyses across different historical contexts and to think critically about arguments made using historical exempla ­ To learn how to use case studies and primary and secondary sources to support arguments about historical change ­ To develop skills in written and oral debate, description and analysis ­ Requirements: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY Attendance and Participation To do well in this course, you must attend class (ON TIME) and engage in class discussion. Therefore, you must come to class prepared to discuss readings and all other assignments. Attendance will be taken each day and, along with participation (see below), accounts for 10% of your final grade. Your attendance grade directly corresponds to how many classes you attend. For example, if you attend 80% of the courses, you receive an 80 for your attendance grade. If you must miss class, you should contact the instructor before 7:30 AM on the day of class and explain why in order for the absence to be excused. You must also provide documentation in the event of doctor’s appointments, funerals, and/or other extenuating circumstances. *Please note that you will be marked absent if you leave class early. Participation In addition, you are expected to regularly contribute to discussion when possible. Participation means everything from answering and asking questions in class, and responding to the comments of your peers to not texting or updating your Facebook status on your cell phone while you’re in class. Please be considerate of your own time, your classmates’, and your instructors’, and ​be​ in class. Grading & Assignments Your final grade for this course is distributed as following: ­ 10% Attendance and participation (discussion, not falling asleep/texting during class, asking questions) ­ 10% Book Review ­ 20% Midterm ­ 20% Short Assignments ­ 15% Fieldwork Analysis ­ 5% First Draft of Final Research Paper ­ 20% Final Research Paper Final grades for the course will be assigned as follows: A (94-100)
A- (90-93) B+ (87-89)
B (84-86) B- (80-83) C+ (77-79) C (74-76) C- (70-73) D (61­69)
F (below 60) 2 Midterm Exam The exam is composed of four sections: 1) a fill­in­the­blank section; 2) a multiple choice section; 3) a short answer section; 4) an essay section. We will discuss the details of how to prepare for these types of questions during class. Book Review Students are responsible for one book review due over the course of the semester. There are three dates at which you may submit your book review; choose one that works best for your schedule. A list of books are available below the schedule of readings at the end of this syllabus. These reviews should step beyond a simple summary of the books’ content by examining the historical questions the author poses and the sources used to answer those questions. Think about what larger historical questions the author engages within food scholarship. You might consider the following questions: What questions is the author asking about the role of food in history and/or the present? How does she/he see their own work responding to the work of other scholars? How would you evaluate the argument made by the author? Be as specific as you can be when answering these questions by citing examples directly from the text. Format for book reviews:​ all papers must be 1200 words in length, type­written in Times New Roman, 12­point font, with 1­inch margins all around. If you do not conform to the formatting and length guidelines for the reviews, ​we will deduct points. Submission:​ Please​ submit a paper copy ​to the instructors ​AND​ ​upload a digital version to D2L. ​We are paranoid about losing papers; make our lives a little less stressful by doing both the hard and digital copies. Submission Date #1 ­ FEBRUARY 11 Submission Date #2 ­ MARCH 1 Submission Date #3 ­ APRIL 14 Short Assignments Throughout the course, you will be responsible for completing six short assignments designed to better familiarize you with the assigned readings and facilitate discussion in class. Each short assignment should be between 1­2 pages long, typed, and submitted as hard­copies in class. Please make sure you read each assignment carefully and respond to the question/task appropriately. PLEASE STAPLE MULTIPLE­PAGE RESPONSES!! Field Investigation and Analysis As a class, we will compile and map a database of local food networks in the Atlanta Metro Area. Pairs of students will be assigned a location to visit and investigate in relation to the issue of food access and landscape. Students are then required to fulfill two assignments that make up this graded component of the course. 1. Data Collection and Sharing (⅓ of the “Fieldwork Analysis” grade) 3 The data collection process is, by definition, a collective enterprise, meaning that the whole class generates a dataset based on quantitative and geospatial information. We will set up and share a link with the class that connects you to Google Maps and Documents. Your job is to visit your assigned geographical unit, study it using the tools we have discussed in class in relation to thinking about food access, quality, and affordability, and then record your observations using the survey questions that have been generated both by our class and HIST 3410 students before you. Your recording will first involve “quantitative” features, using the class­developed survey sheet. After conducting your research, you will then enter that data into an online database that will merge together your data with those of all of your classmates, as well as the data from previous semesters of HIST 3410. Your recording should also involve more “qualitative” information. By “qualitative” information, we mean things that are relevant to understanding the location you’re studying and its food availability, but for which numerical values are difficult to assign. So, for example, you and your partner might think about the following: ­ What did you see during your visit? ­ What could you discover about the history of ownership of a particular food store, market, or restaurant? ­ How would you describe the neighborhood: loud? clean? made up of only the elderly? ­ What can you learn about your location from a historical perspective by looking at things like census data, historical maps, property deeds, or by talking to people? All of this information should be considered as appropriate to what you will then use in your individual written field analysis (see below). Finally, to make this all come together, students are required to plot their data on the group map that we have developed for all semesters of HIST 3410. You and your partner must plot each food site with an electronic pin and label it according to the different categories the class has developed (e.g. “supermarket”, “community garden,” “fast food,” etc.). We will show you how to do this in class and have a handout of written instructions for you, an electronic copy of which is also available on D2L. 2. Individual Written Field Analysis (⅔ of the “Fieldwork Analysis grade) The field analysis is designed to be a more qualitative, personal assessment of the data that you collect from each food landscape. This means that you should consider questions like the ones listed above, as well as things likes geography of the site, its local history, issues of access (who is the intended consumer? what evidence suggests this?), the nutritional value of available foods, and any issues of environmental and social justice. We encourage you to be creative with your assessment. Choose three sites from within your geographical­collection area, and write brief descriptive analyses of each. The entire formal written analysis should be ​3 pages MAX​, but you can also append photos of your sites, recorded interviews, drawings, video, etc. All of this will be shared with the class, so think about information that the instructors, your classmates, and the public would be interested in knowing. FIELD INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS DUE: ​MARCH 24 4 **To facilitate the organization of your investigation and work, we will provide you with a checklist of the required steps/submissions: check off each of these steps as you work through the assignment to ensure that you have completed each step and then submit the sheet along with your final written analysis on ​March 24. Final Research Paper (6­8 page) You may develop a historical research paper from one of the food sites investigated either by yourself or a fellow class member, or you can examine a historical issue related to the politics of food production and consumption. This paper will require investigation of secondary historical sources. Use Chicago style citation format for bibliography and footnotes. All final papers should be uploaded to D2L by the 5:00 PM on Thursday, April 28th. ­ FIRST DRAFT DUE APRIL 7 ­ FINAL DRAFT DUE APRIL 28th Late Paper and Makeup Policy Late papers will have one part of a letter grade deducted for every 24 hours that passes after the paper is due. So, for example, if your book review is due on Tuesday, January 27th and you don’t turn it in until Friday, January 30th, an ‘A’ paper automatically drops to a ‘B­’ paper. Missing an exam or final paper due date is *​extremely​* discouraged in any course. If you know that you must be absent on the day of the exam, you must contact the professors as soon as possible to explain your circumstances. Family and medical emergencies and events scheduled prior to the beginning of the semester will warrant a one­time re­schedule for the exam. You must provide the instructors with a doctor’s note, obituary or funeral program, or some other type of documentation in order to receive this exception. Academic Honesty Cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this class or at GSU. Students are expected to abide by the rules for academic honesty set out in Section 409 of the University ​On Campus Undergraduate Co­curricular Affairs Handbook​. Those failing to do so will be prosecuted according to standard University protocol. Computers and Electronic Devices The use of electronic devices in class can be distracting to both your instructors and your fellow students. If you use a computer for taking notes in class, please sit in the first or second row of the classroom. Otherwise, computers and all electronic devices other than those used to assist with disabilities are NOT to be used during this class. This includes, but is not limited to: smart phones, iPods or other MP3 players, computers, tablets, etc. If you do not comply with these rules, you will be asked to leave for the remainder of class. Registration and Withdrawal Policy You are responsible for making sure that you have correctly registered for this course. Be sure to confirm that your registration is in fact valid. 5 You may withdraw from this class up to the semester midpoint (March 3rd, 2015) and receive a W on your transcript. If you are forced to withdraw because of disruptive behavior you will receive a W/F. It is GSU policy that everyone who withdraws from a class after the semester midpoint must receive a W/F. Incomplete Policy The GSU policy states that instructors may only give incompletes for non­academic reasons. Disabilities All students with disabilities should be registered with the Office of Disability Services and should acquire the appropriate documentation to inform me of any necessary accommodations. If you have a disability that will require special attention, please see the professors during the first week of class in order to make arrangements. Schedule of Topics and Reading Assignments Required Texts There is no textbook for this class, but students are expected to read all assigned readings that are provided either through Desire2Learn, distributed in class, or via email. If you have problems accessing any of the materials, please contact the instructors immediately. I. Nutrition and Taste. Week 1. Introduction 1.1. Jan. 12. Introduction to the course 1.2. Jan. 14. Recipes, Cookbooks and Traditional Fare: food and eating ­ Appadurai, Arjun. “How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India.” ​Comparative Studies in Society and History ​30:1(1988): 3­24. ­ Primary sources: Choose two of the four readings, and make notes on each selection after you read them. Your choices include: ­ Cuneiform Tablet B, (no. 26 of ​YOS II​) (1600 BCE) ­ English recipes from the 16th and 17th centuries ­ Recipes from the labor newspaper ​The Machinist ​(1952 CE) ­ Recipes from the underground newspaper ​The Great Speckled Egg ​(1972) Week 2. Food and Identity 2.1. Jan. 19. Food Rituals, Taboos and Fasting ­ Sharon Sherman, “The Passover Seder: Ritual dynamics, foodways, and family folklore, in Counihan (ed), ​Food in the USA​, pp. 193­204. ­ Muriel Darmon, “The Fifth Element: Social class and the sociology of anorexia,” Sociology​ 43:717­33 (2009). ­ Primary sources: ­ Tertullian, ​On Fasting, ​chapters 15­17. (late 2nd c. CE) 6 2.2. Jan. 21. Culture and Food Communities: Soul Food, Chow Mein and Yankee Pot Roasts (or Maine Lobsters) ­ Adrian Miller​, ​Ch. 3, “From Southern to Soul,” in ​Soul Food: ​The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time ​(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2013). Short Assignment # 1​: According to Adrian Miller, what distinguishes “soul food” from Southern food? Week 3. Food and Status 3.1. Jan. 26. Food Advice ­ Du Puis, Melanie. “A Brief History of Food Advice in America.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture. ​7(3)(2007): pp. 34­44. ­ Primary sources: ­ Sylvester Graham, “The Science of Human Life” (1839) ­ Michael Pollan, excerpt from ​In Defense of Food ​(2008) 3.2. Jan. 28. Feasting and Prestige ­ Michael Dietler, Ch. 3, “Theorizing the Feast,” in Michael Dietler and B. Hayden (eds), ​Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics and power ​(Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press, 2001). ­ Primary sources ­ Petronius, “The Feast of Trimalchio,” from ​The Satyricon ​(1st c CE). ­ OR ­ Bernal Díaz, “Montezuma’s Banquet,” from ​The Memoirs of Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, ​Vol. 1. (1521 CE) II. Food Networks and Power Week 4. Sustenance and Sustainability 4.1. Feb. 2. Hunting, Gathering and the Origins of Agriculture ­ Felipe Fernandez­Armesto, Ch. 3 “Breeding to Eat: From “collecting” food to “producing it,” ​Near A Thousand Tables ​(New York: Free Press, 2002). ­ OR ­ Spencer Wells, Ch. 2, “Growing a New Culture,” in ​Pandora's Seed. The unforeseen cost of civilization ​(NY: Random House, 2010). ­ NO PRIMARY SOURCES TODAY. 4.2. Feb. 4. Environmental Risks, Hunger & Famine ­ Cormac Ó Gráda, Ch. 1 “The Third Horseman,” in ​Famine: A Short History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009). ­ Primary sources: ­ Primary source exercise: Visit the website hosted by the University of Virginia on the Irish Famine of 1846­1850. Examine 3 sources (both textual and visual) and prepare some thoughts on what you have learned from the sources for discussion. ­ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/sadlier/irish/Famine.htm 7 Short Assignment #2​: Describe two or three primary sources that you read from the website. Why focus on images and/or personal stories as a way of historically understanding famine? Week 5. Food Supplies in the Ancient World 5.1. Feb. 9. Grain for Athens ­ Peter Garnsey, Ch. 9 “Vulnerability and Vigilance,” in ​Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco­Roman World ​(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). ­ Primary sources: ­ Hesiod, excerpt from the ​Works and Days ​(ca. 700 BCE) 5.2. Feb. 11. Bread and Circuses: Food in the Roman Empire ­ BOOK REVIEW SUBMISSION DATE #1 ­ Peter Garnsey, pp. 236­243 from Ch. 14, “Rulers of the World,” in ​Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco­Roman World ​(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). ­ Andrew Wallace­Hadrill, pp. 338­353 from Ch. 7 “Luxury and the Consumer Revolution,” in ​Rome’s Cultural Revolution ​(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). ­ Primary sources: ­ Juvenal, ​Satires ​(ca. 100 CE) Week 6. City and Countryside: Ancient States and the Centralization of Food 6.1. Feb. 16. Food and the Emergence of the State: Egyptian Wheat and Mesoamerican Mais ­ Robert Wenke, Ch. 5. “Lords of the Two Lands: The Origins of Dynastic Egypt, 4500­2700 BCE” in ​The Ancient Egyptian State: Origins of Egyptian Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). ­ OR ­ Alfred Crosby, Ch. 5, ​The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492​ (1972; reprint, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003). 6.2. Feb. 17. ​MIDTERM EXAM Week 7. Food and Empire: Colonial Tastes 7.1. Feb. 23. Sugar and Slaves, Venice and Spice ­ Sidney Mintz, ​Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History ​(NY: Penguin, 1985), Chapter 3. ­ Primary Sources: ­ Collection of Images, D2L. 7.2. Feb. 25. Colonial American Gardens James McWilliams, ​A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America ​(NY: Columbia University Press, 2005), Chapter 2. ­ Primary Sources: ­ Martha Ballard Diary ­ Thomas Hill, “The Gardener’s Labyrinth” (1577) 8 Short Assignment #3​: How did Native American and early colonial definitions of “food sufficiency” vary? Week 8. Market Revolutions 8.1. Mar. 1. National Markets and Commercial Appetites ­ BOOK REVIEW SUBMISSION DATE #2 ­ Cindy Lobel, ​Urban Appetites: Food and Culture in Nineteenth­Century New York ​(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), Chapter 3. ­ Primary Sources: ­ Foster, excerpt from ​New York in Slices ​(1849) 8.2. Mar. 3. ​Fieldwork Day. Arrange with your partners to visit your fieldwork locations for the first time during our class time. Week 9. Industrial cities and their hinterlands 9.1 Mar. 8. Chicago and the Commodification of the Prairies ­ William Cronon, ​Nature’s Metropolis ​(NY: Norton, 1991). 9.2 Mar. 10. All Roads Lead to Paris: French Cuisine and the Provinces ­ Priscilla Ferguson, “Prologue,” in ​Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine ​(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). SPRING BREAK: March 14th­20th. NO CLASS III. Gastropolitics: Fast Food, Slow Food, and Food Deserts Week 10. Industrial Production 10.1 Mar. 22. From Egg Baskets to Poultry Plants ­ Monica Gisolfi, “From Crop Lien to Contract Farming: The Roots of Agribusiness in the American South, 1929­1939” ​Agricultural History (Spring 2006): 167­189. Short Assignment #4​: In what ways did poultry farming offer an escape from the crop lien system? Was it successful? 10.2 Mar. 24. The Disassembly Line: Labor and the Meat Market ­ Eric Schlosser, Ch. TBA, ​Fast Food Nation ​(NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2001). ­ Primary Source ­ Upton Sinclair, ​The Jungle​ (1906), excerpt. ­ [Fieldwork Investigation ­ data collection and individual analysis DUE] Week 11. Modernity: Food Convenience & Choice 11.1 Mar. 29. Canned Soup and the Modern Kitchen ­ Ruth Schwartz Cowen, Ch. 4, ​More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave​ (NY: Basic Books, 1983). Short Assignment #5​: Based on the reading, what would you identify as the most important changes to women’s lives after the introduction of modern kitchen technology, and why? 9 11.2 Mar. 31. Supermarkets ­ Victoria de Grazia, Ch. 8, in ​Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth Century Europe ​(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005). Week 12. Globalization 12.1 Apr. 5 Coca­Cola and the Creation of Global Consumption ­ Lynn Phillips, “Food and Globalization,” ​Annual Review of Anthropology (October 2006). FIRST DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER DUE 12.2 Apr. 7. Food Patents and Hunger ­ Vandana Shiva, “The Manifestos” in ​Stolen Harvest: the Hijacking of the Global Food Supply​ (London: Zed Books, 2000), 43­102. ­ Primary Source: ­ Film review of ​Food, Inc. Week 13. Food Movements 13.1 Apr. 12. The Invention of Conventional foods: The Organic Movement ­ Michael Pollan, ​The Omnivore’s Dilemma ​(NY: Penguin, 2007), Introduction and Chapters 1, 6, 8 & 20. ­ Blake Hurst, “The omnivore’s delusion: against the agri­intellectuals,​”​ ​The American ​(July 30, 2009). Short Assignment # 6​: What is the omnivore’s dilemma, and why do food scholars care? 13.2 Apr. 14. Farmers’ Markets and Urban Agriculture ­ BOOK REVIEW SUBMISSION DATE #3 ­ Rachel Laudan, “A plea for culinary modernism: Why we should love new, fast, processed food,” ​Gastronomica​ 1:36­44 (2001). Week 14. Food Culture, Health and Obesity 14.1 Apr. 19. Food Fads and Fad Diets Julie Guthman, “Can’t stomach it: How Michael Pollan et al made me want to eat Cheetos,” ​Gastronomica​ 7:75­79 (2007). 14.2 Apr. 21. The Food Network and Celebrity Chefs ­ Mark Caro, Ch. 1. “The Shot Heard Round the Culinary World,” in ​The Foie Gras Wars: how a 5000­year old delicacy inspired the world's fiercest food fight (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2009). FINAL PAPER DUE THURSDAY, APRIL 28th, 2016 Books Available for Book Reviews 1) Adrian Miller, ​Soul Food: ​The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time ​(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2013). 2) Caroline Walker Bynum, ​Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women ​(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987). 10 3) Veronika Grimm, ​From Feasting to Fasting: the evolution of a sin ​(London: Routledge, 1996). 4) Felipe Fernandez­Armesto, ​Near A Thousand Tables ​(New York: Free Press, 2002). 5) Spencer Wells, ​Pandora's Seed. The unforeseen cost of civilization ​(NY: Random House, 2010). 6) Cormac Ó Gráda, ​Famine: A Short History ​(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009). 7) Peter Garnsey and Walter Scheidel, ​Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity: Essays in Social and Economic History ​(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004). 8) Mark Kurlansky, ​Salt: A World History ​(New York: Random House, 2011). 9) Roger Horowitz, ​Putting Meat on the American Table ​(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2006). 10) ​or your choice of non­fiction, food­related book, approved by one of the instructors. 11)Wolfgang Schivelbusch, ​Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, ​trans. by David Jacobson​ ​(New York: Vintage Books, 1992). 12)Sidney Mintz, ​Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History ​(NY: Penguin, 1985). 13)Priscilla Ferguson, ​Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine ​(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). 14)William Cronon, ​Nature’s Metropolis ​(NY: Norton, 1991). 15)Eric Schlosser, ​Fast Food Nation ​(NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2001). 16)Andrea Wiley, ​Re­Imagining Milk: A brief history of milk consumption in Europe and the US ​(NY: Routledge, 2011). 17)Cindy Lobel, ​Urban Appetites: Food and Culture in Nineteenth­Century New York (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014). 18)Michael Pollan, ​The Omnivore’s Dilemma ​(NY: Penguin, 2007). 19)James Scoot, ​Seeing Like a State: How Various Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed ​(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). 20)Kathryn Dudley, ​Debt and Dispossession: Farm Loss in America’s Homeland ​(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000). 21)or your choice of non­fiction, food­related book, approved by one of the instructors. 11