Tracing the intertwined roles of food, ethnicity, and regionalism in the construction of American identity, this textbook examines the central role food plays in our lives. Drawing on a range of disciplines_including sociology, anthropology, folklore, geography, history, and nutrition_the editors have selected a group of engaging essays to help students explore the idea of food as a window into American culture. The editors' general introductory essay offers an overview of current scholars...

The summer of 1996. In nineteen days, six million visitors jostled about in a southern city grappling with white flight, urban decay and the stifling legacy of Jim Crow. Six years earlier, a bold, audacious partnership of a strong mayor, enlightened business leaders and Atlanta's Black political leadership dared to bid on hosting the 1996 Olympic Games. Unexpectedly, the city won, an achievement that ignited a loose but robust coalition that worked collectively, if sometimes contentiously,...

"A remarkably fine work of creative scholarship." —C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of BooksIn 1860, when four million African Americans were enslaved, a quarter-million others, including William Ellison, were "free people of color." But Ellison was remarkable. Born a slave, his experience spans the history of the South from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. In a day when most Americans, black and white, worked t...

These thirty-four letters, written by members of the William Ellison family, comprise the only sustained correspondence by a free Afro-American family in the late antebellum South. Born a slave, Ellison was freed in 1816, set up a cotton gin business, and by his death in 1861, he owned sixty-three slaves and was the wealthiest free black in South Carolina. Although the early letters are indistinguishable from those of white contemporaries, the later correspondence is preoccupied with proof...

Gloribella works as an executive chef at a trendy restaurant in the Boston Metro area, and every day she feeds hundreds of people. She even invents new recipes to ensure the continued success of the Belly of the Pig, until one day her best friend Luke is implicated in a crime.From then on, her "perfect life" begins to unravel. Believing in her friend's innocence, she hires a high-profile lawyer to keep him out of prison. However, a terrifying scene in her own home reveals more than...

A kid filled with rage, suspended from the football team for unsportsmanlike conduct, and his father, newly home from the war in Afghanistan, reckon with the injuries they’ve caused to others and themselves in this unflinching middle grade novel in verse about love and forgiveness.Hazard’s a military kid, best known for his prowess at football, and his short fuse. His dad’s been in Afghanistan, third tour. The worry and the pressure over school and his dad are gett...