Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet Volume 51

"Amy Bentley's engaging, brilliantly researched book is a revelation. Who knew that all those little baby food jars could tell us so much about the commercial, cultural, and personal history of food in America. Inventing Baby Food is an instant food studies classic." --Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics "Food scholars who think infant feeding means burping babies on their mothers' shoulders should think again. Bentley shows how the corporate approach to babies' appetites rested on a shallow conception of babyhood and human taste. She also devotes attention to the changes in the past few decades, as longer breastfeeding and home-prepared foods have gained modest purchase. Her book leaves us better informed, perhaps even a little more optimistc." --Sidney Mintz, William L. Straus Jr. Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, Johns Hopkins