Lots of amazing information, things I never knew about our immigrant forebears, their lives and times. For an example, were you aware that at one time, circa 1842, about 10,000 pigs were roaming the streets of New York? Finding what forage they could, garbage, etc. Just imagine....? Or that folks were raising geese in their basements? The noise! Not to mention the smell. But those folks were industrious, inventive and struggling to survive, frequently in the face of cruel discrimination.. This book is about so much more than the food, covering as it does the lives of the immigrants as a whole. An excellent book for history teachers to assign. Take note teachers! We have too much revisionist history circulating at present. Not my usual reading path, but I really enjoyed this look at our ancestors' traditions, lives and the times they lived through.
From the Publishers:
“Social history is, most elementally, food history. Jane Ziegelman had the great idea to zero in on one Lower East Side tenement building, and through it she has crafted a unique and aromatic narrative of New York’s immigrant culture: with bread in the oven, steam rising from pots, and the family gathering round.” — Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World.
“Social history is, most elementally, food history. Jane Ziegelman had the great idea to zero in on one Lower East Side tenement building, and through it she has crafted a unique and aromatic narrative of New York’s immigrant culture: with bread in the oven, steam rising from pots, and the family gathering round.” — Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World.
