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Today would have been Upton Sinclair’s 134th birthday, and if he were still alive, you’d owe him a present. Or, at the very least, a firm handshake. Sinclair’s 1906 muckracking novel, The Jungle, changed the way Americans eat. Sinclair investigated the unsavory practices of Chicago's meatpacking industry and turned it into a novel with truths so grotesque that America could barely stomach them. His unsettling look into where our food comes from, including the unjust treatment of factory workers, stirred American sentiments into a near frenzy, resulting in unprecedented food legislation and the creation of the FDA.
Sinclair isn’t the first to turn his words into food for thought. Food writing doesn’t have to be piles of recipes and frivolous prose. Here’s proof that food writing can change how we think about eating, and even dictate what we put in our mouths: 10 Books That Changed the Way We Eat.
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The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Published: 1906
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Brought public attention to the food industry in an unprecedented way
Upton Sinclair did not set out to change the practices of the meat industry when he wrote The Jungle. He worked incognito for weeks in Chicago meatpacking plants not to begin the work necessary to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906—though without his novel, neither would have come so swiftly—but to draw attention to the evils of capitalism. To quote Karl Marx, Sinclair set out to illustrate this: "Capital is dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." He wanted to show just how much life—all of it—was being vacuumed from Americans via wage slavery. But, as Sinclair said, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
Readers were so disturbed by his graphic descriptions of the meat industry that the federal government was forced to investigate. The resulting legislation, along with the creation of the FDA, fundamentally changed how we can legally eat.
The Joy of Cooking, Irma Rombauer
Published: 1931
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Why It Mattered: It's the most popular cookbook in America
This tome of a cookbook is one of the great self-publishing success stories—kinda. In 1931, Rombauer wrote and published by herself a cookbook she called The Joy of Cooking. Though it required her life's savings, it was something she felt necessary, her options seeming limited following the tough death of her husband. Of course, the book took off, eventually occupying a place of biblical importance in kitchens across America. It has been in print continuously since 1936. But Rombauer likely lost millions thanks to the shenanigans of the publisher she eventually worked with. Still, the book made millions of Americans feel like they could hang in the kitchen, altering the way we eat in a massive way.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child
Published: 1961
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Brought French cooking into American kitchens
Most people aren’t capable gourmet cooking. That’s the pervasive myth Julia Child dismissed with her first cook book, encouraging amateur chefs, particularly in America, to attempt French cuisine in their own kitchens. Her recipes were both practical and sophisticated, and her effortless instruction made classic French food accessible to the average American family. But, her most impressive feat? Convincing Americans that vegetables, if cooked properly, actually taste good.
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
Published: 1962
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Raised awareness about pesticides, resulting in the ban of DDT
Well-written books can change the world. Rachel Carson’s scathing exposé of the harmful effects of pesticides, Silent Spring, is proof. At the time Carson was writing, dousing crops with DDT was common practice, despite that fact that it left fields littered with dead animals. If consuming these chemicals was lethal for birds, what was it doing to us? This was the question Carson raised, stockpiling compelling research that pointed at the terrifying answer. Her inquiries led to the public protesting DDT, which resulted in a ban on the chemical, and more importantly, a new emphasis on environmental issues that pervades to this day. For better (less toxins in our food) and worse (militant foodies), we have Carson to thank.
How to Cook a Wolf, M.F.K. Fisher
Published: 1988
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Took American eating from gluttony to simplicity with ease
Simple doesn’t have to be a dirty word when it comes to cooking. At least, that’s what M. F. K. Fisher argues in her classic cooking book. Fisher tackled a somber subject matter—eating for survival during the food shortages of World War II—with wit and warmth. Through her recipes and thoughtful essays, Fisher offered a philosophy for eating that is as radical as it is obvious, arguing that skimping in the kitchen can actually translate to more satisfaction. We may not be in the war, but in the midst of a perma-recession, Fisher’s words are as pertinent now as they ever were.
Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
Published: 2000
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Changed the public’s conception of fine dining
Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant exposé left America with an unsettling sense of what goes on behind the kitchen doors. Our naïve vision of chefs as culinary artists using white tablecloths as their blank slate was overturned by Bourdain’s no-frills descriptions of kitchens doubling as drug dens and spaces for impromptu sex sessions, run by men he likened to pirates. His expletive-laced rants took the restaurant industry to task, and never again would any sane, literate person dare to order Mahi on a Monday (Thursday’s leftovers) or order a steak well done (a guaranteed way to get the worst cut). With Bourdain, the censors went into the trash, and the rare truth was served up, bloody and uncompromising. We owe him for that.
Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Robert Atkins
Published: 2001
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Prototypical diet book to illustrate America's struggle with eating
How it happened: First you came home to find your father in his chair in front of the TV but the screen was black. He was reading, and it wasn't a Clive Cussler novel about cars and underwater stuff. No, there was an old man smiling at you from the front cover like the paperback was a tabloid. The title read Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. "Dad, what's wrong?"
It was the Atkins diet, and soon your favorite after-school sandwich shop was advertising sandwiches without bread. Chain Mexican restaurants by the mall swore they could make that a burrito without the flour tortilla if you wanted it that way. Your mom replied, "Yes, please."
Had everyone gone crazy? Yes. It was the Atkins diet, and a million more would come in its wake. How can you tell that a nation has a fucked-up relationship with food? When its people gobble these books like pigs at a trough. That would be Michael Pollan's point in The Omnivore's Dilemma, released five years after the Atkins fad began. He wasn't wrong.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser
Published: 2002
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Made Americans realize that Happy Meals were worth getting mad about
If you haven’t had a greasy cheeseburger procured through a drive-thru window, you’re not living in America. Before Eric Schlosser hit the scene, few realized what was truly lurking between those perfectly round, inexpensive buns. Schlosser’s painstaking research shed light on the effects of industrializing food with gruesome detail, from Franken-burgers made from the meat of up to one hundred cows, to the total dehumanization of every aspect of the process. For many, Schlosser’s dark glimpse into the process behind the Quarter Pounder was enough to make them forgo their favorite fast foods. For a week, at least.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan
Published: 2006
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Encapsulates of the modern food conversation
Many, if not all, of the major food talking points of today can be found in Pollan's book, described by the author as an attempt to decide what to eat for dinner. Of course, to answer this question without losing his appetite, Pollan explores the problems of American consumption. We don't eat local. We eat far too much corn. Simply, we don't think about what we're eating, how it arrived before us, what it contains. The current trends in food (either a movement or a fad, depending on your level of cynicism) ask that we attend more closely to our food. Michael Pollan deserves much credit for raising awareness.
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer
Published: 2009
Buy It Here: amazon.com
Why It Mattered: Brought increased attention to the question of whether eating meat is ethical
As a novelist, Jonathan Safran Foer's gimmicks don't necessarily scan as gimmicks. Indeed, a great artist makes you blind to the gimmicks ("Real neat, Joyce, deciding to have your book take place over the course of just one day—I see what you're doing!"). When his fiction works, it's because the showy formal straitjackets he traps himself in service his story, and vice versa. Writing non-fiction, especially a work that is so invested in swaying the reader to a certain conclusion—that it may be better to not eat animals—requires a different approach. But JSF isn't hearing that. So you have a precious book about eating animals that, despite its artistic flaws, contributed significantly to the national conversation about how to eat. To quote Natalie Portman: "Eating Animals changed me from a twenty-year vegetarian to a vegan activist." Most of us are still teasing out the answers to these impossible questions.
