Description
What makes Frederick Douglass Opie's work so powerful and so important is that it transcends the essentialist concept of 'soul food' as rooted in timeless cultural attributes of people of African descent. Opie shows not only that African American traditions of cooking were constantly changing in response to contact with Europeans, American Indians, and immigrants from many different parts of the world, but also that as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the agricultural and culinary traditions of African peoples were in flux as a result of global trading patterns. -- Mark Naison, professor of African American studies and history and director of urban studies, Fordham University Hog and Hominy is a wonderful walk through the culinary traditions of African Americans, providing a history of African Americans simultaneously. -- Jeffrey Ogbar, director, Institute for African American Studies, University of Connecticut, and author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity
About the Author
Frederick Douglass Opie teaches history at Babson College. He is author of Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923 and a blogger at www.frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com, where he conducts "Daily Musings on Culture, History, and Food with Related Recipes." He has appeared on the popular American Public Media show The Splendid Table and is a regular guest on Philadelphia National Public Radio's The Chef's Table.
Reviews
[An] elegant, detailed history... Highly recommended. Choice Hog and Hominy provides a definitive history of the grand social forces and unforgettable personalities that have revolutionized Africa American cooking since the twilight of the Jim Crow system. -- Andrew Warnes Gastronomica Hog and Hominy contributes to understanding the important place of soul food in African American culture and of African American cuisine in the American melting pot. -- Carole Counihan Journal of American Ethnic History
Book Information
ISBN 9780231146395
Author Frederick Douglass Opie
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press