#aaron bobrow-strain

[bigtickhk]

She Entered the U.S. Illegally as a Child. She Was Stabbed Nearly to Death After Being Deported.

“The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez,” by Aaron Bobrow-Strain, captures the plight of an undocumented Mexican immigrant in harrowing, novelistic detail.

The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez by Aaron Bobrow-Strain https://amzn.to/2LgY9b3

[jimbaumer]

Our daily bread (a'int white no more)

A recent medical procedure required me to adopt what I’d call a “1970s” eating regimen—white bread, Jell-O, and 7-Up, or something approximating that time period of bland, industrial food stuffs.

After reliving my childhood eating patterns, it was ironic that I’d visit the Maine State Library and find Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf waiting for me to snatch off the library’s new books shelf.

Books like Bobrow-Strain’s take a sociological approach in explaining things and look at historical elements of life in America. Bread is his reference point that he uses to examine the attendant issues that drove white bread production and allowed America to throw itself wholeheartedly behind products like Wonder Bread and other vitamin-enriched staples of our industrial approach to food in the middle of the 20th century. The author uses bread in framing a debate Americans have been having for over a century about what we eat and how this defines who we are as a people and nation. He riffs on a theme that what we eat, in this case bread (what has been called “the staff of life), is more than merely a food and our sustenance; bread is the reference point for a discussion about larger and more complex issues, like race, class, immigration, and gender.

Tracing the history of bread-making in America, the author makes an attempt to show that championing "good food" reflects our dreams for a better society. Bobrow-Strain also looks at contemporary ways of eating and ties them into a previous movements, like when Sylvester Graham, who the graham cracker is erroneously attributed to, wrote countless essays influencing Americans at the time, leading them to believe and adopt a philosophy that said that the body was a system of interconnected fibers radiating out from the “gut” and by embracing a bland, disciplined eating regimen, could cure all ailments. That approach has been with us ever since in some form—the belief that what we eat can cure physical, as well as social ills, if we are just “religious” enough in our approach. We see this in all diet fads, as well as exercise regimens bordering on the ritualistic. 

Middle-class Americans, and those standing on the rungs above on the socioeconomic ladder, have abandoned industrial bread and now look down on a product that was ubiquitous on America’s tables.

Bobrow-Strain writes about how that very same white bread, in the early 20th century, came to stand as a symbol of wealth and status, as well as racial purity. With industrial bakers positioning their product as an icon of scientific progress, it was less about mere taste and culinary preference, but "an expression of responsible citizenship." Even as late as the 1950s, white bread was still being held up as a product that promoted strength and masculinity, warding off Cold War fears of Communism.

He addresses our  current ways of eating and how healthy foods, particularly the whole organic foods culture is framed economically, with "elites" being able to pay considerably more for foods grown organically, trucked across the country, and marked up at places like Whole Foods and other stores that cater to affluent consumers.

This follows on what became a major shift in American eating, when the 60's and the counter-culture movement brought a rediscovery of bread-baking and changes in the American diet. With it came a return by the general public to an interest in health foods, as well as environmental concerns about industrial bread-baking. Mainstream newspaper articles about rats fed a white bread-only diet, perishing surfaced and sales of Wonder Bread and others began to suffer. My mother began reading books by people like Adelle Davis and our eating would change forever.

My favorite chapter, however, was the one at the end detailing how white bread came to be a stand-in phrase for "white trash." I've read several books about how poor, rural whites have come to be marginalized by those living in privilege, where "white trash" and "redneck" are pejoratives that liberals comfortably throw around, but are actually the equivalent of calling a black the "n-word."

I find it interesting that it’s still acceptable to slam rural whites, particularly those living in the southern regions of America. A variety of writers have touched on this in other books I’ve read. Bands like the Drive-by Truckers have picked up this theme, with their primary songwriter, Patterson Hood, (from Muscle Shoals, Alabama) articulating how convenient it is to project racism on the South (even among liberals)  as if this region of the U.S. is the only place where racism still exists. This element came through clearly in the last chapter of Bobrow-Strains book.

This book, along with some recent conversations I’ve been having with a friend, as well as a family member, highlight how complete the American mindfuck really is. It’s difficult to break free from socialization that runs through every aspect of our culture, no matter how thorough your attempts are at reexamining conventional thinking. Whether it’s eating, how we get our food, our political/religious conventions and even elements of work, so much of our thinking has been shaped by things that may not be in our best interests, but have become part of what gets passed off as the accepted canon, and what it means to be a “good American.”

[isfbv]

"Wonderbread vs artisanal bread. It may seem like a simple choice between variants of the same thing, but for many the two are a universe apart -- one representing industrial production and American hubris; the other a wholesomeness that bespeaks a different way of being in the world. Food scholar Aaron Bobrow-Strain has written a social history of white bread. He discusses the unexpected consequences of trying to change the world with food. "

[johnnycaseinwonderland]

White Bread!  This book trailer for my colleague Aaron Bobrow-Strain's new book, White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf, was made by Film & Media Studies seniors  Zack Ellenbogen, Chrissy Delicata, and Jeff Gayle as part of the Advanced Filmmaking course at Bedford Falls U!

[happybreadhouse]

I woke this morning to the radio playing this interview with Aaron Bobrow-Strain who has written, "White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf."

I have not read this book (yet), but I am very interested in it. Since I am known for my baking, people often reveal their views on food politics and morality to me -- usually through snarky comments they assume I agree with. I also have many baking books where authors opine about how store-bough bread is both inedible and immoral.

There is clearly something about bread that people respond to on a deep level

Personally, I have nothing at all against white bread. If I did, I wouldn't be able to enjoy a crunchy baguette or just great pizza crust, for that matter. I don't have any particular prejudice against store-bought bread -- even the much-maligned Wonder Bread! Granted, It isn't my first pick, but it is great for what it apologetically sets out to be.

...And, let's face it, I have great childhood memories of squishing, sculpting, bouncing and (eventually) eating wonder bread.