Eating for victory : food rationing and the politics of domesticity / Amy Bentley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bentley, Amy, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Women--United States.

World War, 1939-1945.

Women--United States--History--20th century.

Women.

Rationing.

History.

Homemakers.

United States.

Homemakers--United States--History--20th century.

Rationing--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

xiii, 238 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [1998]

Summary:

Mandatory food rationing during World War II significantly challenged the image of the United States as a land of plenty and collapsed the boundaries between women's public and private lives by declaring home production and consumption to be political activities.

Examining the food-related propaganda surrounding rationing, Eating for Victory decodes the dual message purveyed by the government and the media: while mandatory rationing was necessary to provide food for U.S. and Allied troops overseas, women on the home front were also "required" to provide their families with nutritious food. Amy Bentley reveals the role of the Wartime Homemaker as a pivotal component not only of World War II but also of the development of the United States into a superpower.

Contents:

Rationing is good democracy

Woman as wartime homemaker : family, food, and national security

Islands of serenity : gender, race, and ordered meals

Meat and sugar : consumption, rationing, and wartime food deprivation

Victory gardening and canning : men, women, and home front family food production

Freedom from want : abundance and sacrifice in U.S. postwar famine relief.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [219]-234) and index.

ISBN:

0252024192

0252067274

OCLC:

38168249