The Early American Table
Food and Society in the New World
Trudy Eden
“An original contribution to several fields of early American history and of British history too.”—David Fahey, Miami University, Ohio
“A fascinating study.”—Hilda Smith, University of Cincinnati
An exploration in the history of biopolitics, The Early American Table offers a unique study of the ways in which English colonists in North America incorporated the “you are what you eat” philosophy into their conception of themselves and their proper place in society. Eden aptly demonstrates that ideas about the body—ideas that may seem irrelevant or even laughable today—not only guided day-to-day personal behavior but also influenced society and politics.
According to the 17th- and 18th-century understanding of the body, food affected the blood, bones, mind, and spirit in ways other social markers (e.g. clothes, manners, speech) did not because food was directly assimilated by the consumer. A plentiful, varied diet of high-quality refined foods created virtuous, refined individuals fit to govern society. In contrast, a more restricted diet of poor quality, coarse foods made an individual coarse, even beastly, and unfit to lead.
In the Old World, especially before 1600, poverty, legal restrictions, and the scarcity of land prohibited most individuals from purchasing or raising foods believed to produce refinement and virtue. Only the wealthy were able to enjoy such a diet. In turn, this elite diet marked their social status and reaffirmed their entitlement to power.
The English men and women who colonized North America throughout the colonial period held the idea that diet shaped character. After only a few decades of settlement, many of them enjoyed the unprecedented prosperity enabled by the fertile environment. Lower and middling families could set their tables with a greater variety and higher quality of food than their social counterparts in England. As a result, in contrast to England where an aristocrat’s dinner was far different than a laborer’s, in America, the differences between the diets of artisans and urban laborers, of plantation owners and small farmers, were not as great. In short, the American diet was a democratic diet that had social and political consequences.
Trudy Eden is Associate Professor of History at the University of Northern Iowa.
(2008) 203 pp., 17 illus.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87580-383-8
ISBN-10: 0-87580-383-0
cloth $37.00
Founding Corporate Power in Early National Philadelphia
Andrew M. Schocket
2008 Ohio Academy of History Outstanding Publication Award Winner
“In this deeply researched, richly detailed case study of the origins of corporate power in the new nation's 'first city,' Andrew M. Schocket deftly unravels an enigma that has plagued historians and observers of the early republic since Alexis de Tocqueville disembarked in Philadelphia in 1831.”—The Journal of American History
“[This book] offers fresh insight into one of the most bewildering puzzles of the early republic: why did economic democracy fail to materialize despite the rapid spread of political democracy?”—Lawrence Peskin, Morgan State University
"Highly recommended ... well written and expertly researched."—Choice
During its first heady decades, the United States promised to become a fully democratic society with unprecedented liberty and opportunity. Yet, as political rights spread, a rising elite gained control over the sources of prosperity by means of the institution that has since come to symbolize capitalist America—the corporation. In this study, Andrew M. Schocket analyzes the establishment, growth, and operations of both commercial and municipal corporations in the nation’s premier city, Philadelphia.
From the 1780s through the 1820s, members of Philadelphia’s privileged class formed corporations in order to consolidate their capital and political influence. By controlling regional transportation networks as well as banks and the municipal water supply, they exploited the ambitions of local farmers, artisans, and entrepreneurs who depended upon corporate services. Meanwhile, corporate insiders managed to insulate their decision making not only from the public but even from the majority of their own stockholders. In short, in this leading commercial city with a reputation for innovation, a corporate aristocracy created a new form of power.
At the same time, corporations answered needs that private individuals or partnerships could not—and government, uncertain of its own authority, would not—supply. Resolving the apparent contradiction between the spread of political democracy and the consolidation of economic power, Schocket provocatively argues that corporations helped to generate the relatively diffuse prosperity of the early national period. Though controlled by the few, they offered services that allowed middle-class entrepreneurs to flourish. This mixed legacy has resulted in the continuing ambivalence toward U.S. corporations today.
Andrew M. Schocket is Assistant Professor of History at Bowling Green State University.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87580-369-2
ISBN-10: 0-87580-369-5
cloth $42.00
Founding Corporate Power in Early National Philadelphia
Andrew M. Schocket
“In this deeply researched and imaginatively argued book, Schocket asks fundamental questions about how and by whom power is wielded and about why certain choices were taken and not others.”—Daniel K. Richter, University of Pennsylvania
“[This book] offers fresh insight into one of the most bewildering puzzles of the early republic: why did economic democracy fail to materialize despite the rapid spread of political democracy?”—Lawrence Peskin, Morgan State University
During its first heady decades, the United States promised to become a fully democratic society with unprecedented liberty and opportunity. Yet, as political rights spread, a rising elite gained control over the sources of prosperity by means of the institution that has since come to symbolize capitalist America—the corporation. In this study, Andrew M. Schocket analyzes the establishment, growth, and operations of both commercial and municipal corporations in the nation’s premier city, Philadelphia.
From the 1780s through the 1820s, members of Philadelphia’s privileged class formed corporations in order to consolidate their capital and political influence. By controlling regional transportation networks as well as banks and the municipal water supply, they exploited the ambitions of local farmers, artisans, and entrepreneurs who depended upon corporate services. Meanwhile, corporate insiders managed to insulate their decision making not only from the public but even from the majority of their own stockholders. In short, in this leading commercial city with a reputation for innovation, a corporate aristocracy created a new form of power.
At the same time, corporations answered needs that private individuals or partnerships could not—and government, uncertain of its own authority, would not—supply. Resolving the apparent contradiction between the spread of political democracy and the consolidation of economic power, Schocket provocatively argues that corporations helped to generate the relatively diffuse prosperity of the early national period. Though controlled by the few, they offered services that allowed middle-class entrepreneurs to flourish. This mixed legacy has resulted in the continuing ambivalence toward U.S. corporations today.
Andrew M. Schocket is Assistant Professor of History at Bowling Green State University.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87580-369-2
ISBN-10: 0-87580-369-5
cloth $42.00
May 13, 2008