For most Americans in the 19th century, it wasn't what you ate, but how much you ate, that mattered. Late in the century, doctors wrote books like How To Be Plumb and the voluptuous woman was the ideal. The famed actress Lillian Russell, considered by many the epitome of beauty, weighed almost 200 pounds. Today, in contrast, Americans seem obsessed with calories, diets and slimness, and with eating healthful amounts of vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. What sparked this remarkable revolution in the way we eat.

As historian Harvey Levenstein points out, the great American food revolution really occurred between the years 1880 and 1930. Focusing on this pivotal half-century, Levenstein provides a vivid account of the people and social forces that redirected the American diet, spiced with colorful portraits of the reformers, scientists, businessmen, faddists and hucksters who promoted or exploited the eating revolution.

Levenstein serves up fascinating insights into the social, economic, and political forces that spurred the eating revolution—urbanization, immigration, technological and agricultural advances, and the changing role of women in society. He examines how nutritional science developed in America; how Prohibition's ban on wine helped destroy French cuisine in America; how changes in women's work, marriage, and the family led to lighter, time-saving meals; and how giant food corporations used massive advertising budgets to change the way Americans prepared foods.

The book is published by University of California Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"One of the most interesting and informative indexes into the nature of American culture.... Bon appetit!" (Journal of American Culture)