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author | Peter Henry Mabli |
title | "I Choose to Sit at the Great National Table": American Cuisine and Identity in the Early Republic |
abstract |
This dissertation reviews the deliberate and evolutionary development of cultural nationalism through food and cuisine, specifically the methods and manners in
which Americans during the early Republic conceptualized and produced a distinct national culinary culture. Through multiple forms of evidence including published
cookbooks, travelogues, etchings and paintings, nutritional studies, newspaper articles, and essays, Americans and Europeans employed food as a symbolic tool to
redefine their definitions of national culture. The production and consumption of certain foodstuffs was indeed an essential component in the process of interpreting
the burgeoning American postcolonial national consciousness, often at the expense however of an open and inclusive society. While the current scholarship contends
that Americans remained anchored to their colonial British food systems in the early national period, this research reveals a more complicated narrative of identity
construction that ultimately highlights a complex ideological and cultural transformation. In short, this work analyzes how intellectual descriptions of American
cuisine affected attitudes and perceptions of national character formation in the early American Republic.
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school | The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University |
degree | Ph.D. (2019) |
advisor | William Rogers |
committee | Wyatt Evans Marc Boglioli |
full text | PHMabli.pdf |
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