White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

Mar 13, 2012 Billie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a free book I received from the publisher through the goodreads giveaway program

I didn't think that you could fill a book with interesting information or stories about white bread. After all, I've grown up with white bread and it's always been there for me. Like a trusted friend.

But when I started reading about white bread and we're going back over 90 years I had no idea it had been around for that long. I knew bread itself has been around for centuries but I thought white bread was a r...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Robert Kinosian rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure if this book is turning me into a social justice-loving Communist or a regulation-hating Libertarian. I guess that means it's presenting a balanced perspective. Definitely an interesting read.

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Mar 21, 2012 Anastasia Zamkinos rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sociologists, foodies

Shelves: nonfiction, food, social-justice

Admittedly, I was bound to have a bit of a soft spot for Aaron Bobrow-Strain's White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf. The author begins with an anecdote from his time living in Tucson when he tried to make twenty loaves of bread at once and I lived in Tucson for about a decade. He teaches at Whitman and I graduated from and now work at Whitman. His book is about bread and I absolutely love bread. In fact I'm eating a slice right now, which after reading this book feels like a ve...more Admittedly, I was bound to have a bit of a soft spot for Aaron Bobrow-Strain's White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf. The author begins with an anecdote from his time living in Tucson when he tried to make twenty loaves of bread at once and I lived in Tucson for about a decade. He teaches at Whitman and I graduated from and now work at Whitman. His book is about bread and I absolutely love bread. In fact I'm eating a slice right now, which after reading this book feels like a very complex and political activity. (What difference would it make in your impression of who I am and what my politics might be if I told you it was a slice of Dave's Killer Bread?) But more than about bread this book is about the human cultures built around bread and the power dynamics that shape the production and consumption of as well as discourse about this ever-popular food source.

The book is organized by the social dreams of "good" bread (and fear of "bad" bread) in several different historical periods in the States: dreams of purity/fear of contagion, control & abundance, health & discipline, strength & defense, peace & security, and counterculture resistance & status. Bobrow-Strain points out the ways in which cultural expectations and dreams build on one another and how recent bread trends interestingly mirror and turn back in past bread trends and philosophies in some paradoxical ways. Take, for example, the current trend toward homemade bread: "The countercultural dream of good bread challenged authority and expertise, stood against capitalist agribusiness, and sought to remake relations among people and between nature and society. Yet it also rested on rather orthodox myths of American individualism and independence." (171) Or the new gluten-free trend? Not so new.

As you can probably tell from the quote above, it's not just a matter of bread and dreaming-- bread dreams are wrapped up in a complex narrative that ties in racial and economic inequalities, gender expectations, protest culture, industrial capitalism and it's malcontents, hybrids of artisan values and industrial methods, and more. For example, is bread making anti-feminist in that there is a history of women kept to the kitchen, working and reworking bread dough to unpredictable effects and industrial white bread made home-keeping less slavish? Or has bread making been reclaimed in contemporarily nostalgic fashion, along with home-canned preserves, as something women can approach out of choice and, in so doing, claim as a sign of hard won freedoms?

This book trailer made by a group of student film makers might offer a more visual of some of key themes Bobrow-Strain's text touches on in bread's social history.

Now, I'm not a historian, but the historical information in this book was still accessible and almost always interesting. The history, tempered with the occasional personal anecdote from the author, kept me engaged, and in the end White Bread helped me think more critically about my bread choices and about my assumptions about breads and bread eaters (or non eaters). It also makes me want to better examine the social histories of several other foods I frequent. Perhaps Kurlansky's Salt is next, or a book on olive oil...

But to the point. For a carboloader like me or a carbophobe, a foodie or a sociologist, an industrialist or a communist or a feminist or a capitalist or any intersection thereof, or really anyone living in these bread-obsessed times, this is a worthwhile and smooth read. It probably won't radically change your life, but it'll almost definitely make you think a little more complexly about a little thing it's easy to take for granted.(less)

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Mar 10, 2013 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

In reading Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s “White Bread” I was particularly fascinated by the public health issues and scientific claims that helped support the rise and fall of the pristine loaf. The Pure Foods movement in the early 1900s along with public health scares pushed the concerns of unsanitary baking in small boutique shops and even at home. “Accurately or not, a simple loaf of bread from a small urban bakery seemed to many consumers a harbinger of death and disease” (p 19). This rapid jump to...more In reading Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s “White Bread” I was particularly fascinated by the public health issues and scientific claims that helped support the rise and fall of the pristine loaf. The Pure Foods movement in the early 1900s along with public health scares pushed the concerns of unsanitary baking in small boutique shops and even at home. “Accurately or not, a simple loaf of bread from a small urban bakery seemed to many consumers a harbinger of death and disease” (p 19). This rapid jump to industrialized bread that is “untouched by human hands” launched newfound big business in one of our most precious staples of the times. Instead of educating small bakers and house wives on the proper safety protocols for food handling, it seems scientists and public health officials too quickly promoted big business and industrialization as the only safe source for bread production. What is a frightened public to do with all the health scares but rely on our government officials and savvy advertisers to point us to a healthier way?
The association between germs and baking became the norm in the minds of that time. And while there were still concerns over handling they brought in wrapping mandates and then the costumer could not see and smell the loaf so they felt for softness and this became an indicator of freshness. Then the enrichment began to further disguise our bread and pretty soon what we were eating was not food at all but an industrialized scientific experiment. While this book was very insightful into some of the historic opportunities of irresponsibility in use of science and technology, corporate greed and especially public welfare, I would have like see more expansion on where this has led us today in our food choices.
It is still surprising to me how the food regulations devised to protect consumers, do a better job at protecting big farm and processed food plants. Today we use chemicals to sanitize our produce and antibiotics to keep animals healthier is squalor conditions. Throughout the stories portrayed in White Bread I can’t help but think we did not learn much from this white bread enrichment debacle. While there are healthier choices available and locally grown movements, there’s also continued health scares and taint prominent in the industry. For too many there is not a choice to select the food put on their plate or the water they drink. They only know they are hungry and they are thirsty so those in poverty must rely on society to provide for them, and too often this is not a sustainable choice for a healthy life.
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Apr 27, 2012 Angel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: foods-and-epicurious, business-and-economics, history

This was an interesting little book. It is indeed a social history, as it looks at how white bread has been seen in society, and it also looks at what that mass produced white loaf says about us. How does the white bread illustrate our aspirations, dreams, and hopes as a society? What does it say about class? Where do you belong if you eat it or not? Those are the kinds of questions this book strives to answer.

There are various ways to look at white bread, and those ways reflect where our socie...more This was an interesting little book. It is indeed a social history, as it looks at how white bread has been seen in society, and it also looks at what that mass produced white loaf says about us. How does the white bread illustrate our aspirations, dreams, and hopes as a society? What does it say about class? Where do you belong if you eat it or not? Those are the kinds of questions this book strives to answer.

There are various ways to look at white bread, and those ways reflect where our society has been and where it will go. White bread has been a symbol of wealth, and now (at least in the U.S.), it has become a symbol of poverty, of white trash. How did that happen? This book goes over that. The author looks at the various social dreams that white bread has come to embody. There is the dream of cleanliness and industrial efficiency; the dream of being able to feed more people and, hopefully end poverty (or at least curb it; the dream of military and defense of the nation, where you needed well-fed soldiers and members of society, going along with the importance of nutrition. In other words, you wanted good nutrition because it was the patriotic thing to do, and so on. In looking at each dream or stage, white bread embodies those dreams and symbols.

The author also asks some hard questions. The one that stayed with me, a question I often ponder, is the one of elitism in high end and/or organic foods. Sure, you can get high end fresh baked bread, but only if you have access to a community bakery that draws on high end supplies for its bread baking operation. Poor people in essence are stuck with white bread because that is all they can afford. While there is some critique of this, I am not sure any real solutions are offered other than we need to be aware. Then again, it must be noted the author is one of those people who can afford to buy that high end whole grain bread. Not something to hold against the author, but it has to be considered; it's where he is coming from. The issue of access to good food for all is an important one, and it goes beyond just bread, but illuminating this is the story of white bread.

The book is a fairly easy read. You do get some interesting history of the U.S., history of immigrants, society, so on as well with the bread history. This is a trait of a microhistory, though this one is more social than historical. You get stories of the dynasties that created the great bread making industries. I particularly found interesting the story of Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican baking conglomerate that owns a good amount of brands most people in the U.S. think of as "American." I was aware of it (as a Latino, I am fairly aware of Bimbo), but I am willing to bet many readers may find that interesting as well.

Overall, this is an interesting book. You can read it a bit at a time, and you can learn a few things along the way. I do think it will give you a better appreciation not just of white bread, but of bread and the dynamics of feeding society.

Disclosure note: I won this book from a GoodReads First Reads giveaway. (less)

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Jul 02, 2012 Claudia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: food

Interesting. It tied together a lot of current food history/politics stuff I'd been reading, along with some specific Latin American history I hadn't been aware of (particularly the history of Bimbo, a Mexican bakery company).

The author was also pretty good about showing both sides of the coin, as it were, in a lot of the discussions. Yes, the Green Revolution was amazing and good, in that it provided a ton of necessary food for millions; unfortunately, it also created the current industrial foo...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Christina Dudley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urbanfarmjunkie

Bobrow-Strain traces the arc of American white bread history, from when it was trumpeted as the answer to grubby, adulterated loaves from one-oven basement "bakeries" in the late 19th century; to its triumph as the symbol of scientific, vitamin-enriched power; to its impact on American foreign policy after WWII; to its fall into "lower-class," "white-trash" marker.

I enjoyed the history of Grahamism and appreciated the critiques of artisanal, locavore eating as a white elite trend. Some of the fo...more

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Jun 13, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

I know, I know - the only thing that sounds less interesting than eating white bread is reading a history of it. But the truth is that there's a lot about the history of the unassuming little white loaf that you didn't know, and there's even more that it can tell us about how people have pursued dreams of making society better - and achieved results they hadn't intended. Find out how in less than 40 nyears, a product went from mostly being baked in small bakeries and homes to large factories and...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Susan Olesen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh? A few interesting facts (Mexican conglomerate Bimbo bread is snapping up American bread companies, like Sarah Lee, Roman Meal, Arnold, & several others), bread is a political tool and the ratio of white bread/whole grain eaters swaps back and forth depending on which is seen as 'low class', etc), but overall this is a short book that could have been a lot shorter. I'm still not sure if it ever arrived at a point beyond the author's curiosity about white bread. I should have known when t...more

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May 10, 2013 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: food, non-fiction

This was an informative book in many ways. For instance, I never had heard of "white trash parties" before this book. White Bread is something I used to feed to the geese when I was little, not something I ever ate myself. And in fact, it was always considered to be a "poorer" type of food; we ate wheat bread at home (and the brand was probably no nutritionally better than the white bread out there). So to have this book bring the social history of the bread into light was a different way of loo...more This was an informative book in many ways. For instance, I never had heard of "white trash parties" before this book. White Bread is something I used to feed to the geese when I was little, not something I ever ate myself. And in fact, it was always considered to be a "poorer" type of food; we ate wheat bread at home (and the brand was probably no nutritionally better than the white bread out there). So to have this book bring the social history of the bread into light was a different way of looking at things.

Bobrow-Strain takes the white loaf and leads you through time showing its sociological impacts in America. He also explores its use on the world market and how different innovations were used when making the bread and turning it into a machine driven process. There is some description of additives used to make the bread fluffy and light, the enrichments added to the bread, and the general feeling of its health benefits as well.

The general topic of this book was how white bread shaped the United States and also shaped the world. I have to say, I realize this was a social history, but I think the author was stretching a little bit when he tied in breads importance to some foreign policies and other matters. I don't doubt it was a contributing factor, but I don't think it held the kind of importance he claimed it to have. He also didn't really explore the people using the bread except to say that it's shifted several times from being a poor persons food to a rich persons food. I wish he had maybe included some interviews with real people and their thoughts on the food now to provide the contrast with the advertisements he quotes for the past decades.

The book has a lot of interesting facts. Like the Bimbo Bread company that is Mexican based yet owns a great deal of the large bakery factories in the United States. I hadn't heard of them either, but I also don't buy a lot of bread as I prefer to make my own. But the way the information was presented was not very cohesive. The author jumps all around in this book and doesn't ever complete a chapter with a single thought. It just sort of meanders here and there without purpose sometimes. And I actually found the book a bit boring in places. Especially the latter half of the book. The first part of the book was filled with enough interesting facts about Graham (yes the one who invented the Graham cracker) and other parts of history and of the making of brad itself that it was more of a pleasure to read. But when he started getting into wheat production after the wars and the foreign policy, it just kind of lost my interest. Don't get me wrong, talk about ingredients was there, but it was so interspersed with other things that you could almost blink and miss it while reading.

I'm not really sure how to classify this book. Maybe social history is a good name for it, but someone who enjoys more foodie types of books might get discouraged with the lack of actual talking about ingredients and strains and overwhelmed with all the political statistics. But a person who enjoys more general history might get more out of this book. Myself, well I fall into the first type of people, this is a solid three stars from me.

White Bread: A Social History
Copyright 2012
257 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2013

More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com (less)

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Dec 17, 2012 Alana rated it 3 of 5 stars

White Bread is an interesting book that illustrates the socio-economic, patriotic and emotional impact of mass-produced white bread. Written in a fairly breezy personal style, the book shows how bread went from the kitchen, to the factory in the late 1800's to being a patriotic duty, as enriched bread made a stronger America during the mid-century, and back to the kitchen when the hippies came along. Along the way, the author examines unintended consequences of changes in bread culture leading t...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting look at bread, specifically the sliced white American loaf. There's a lot of interesting information in here about the history of bread in the US, including what has come in and out of fashion. Years ago, the dark, whole wheat loaves that people admire today were only for the poorest people, and for those who just came to this country. This is an interesting read for bread lovers as well as those interested in culinary history and how it relates to sociology. I've included a few b...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Charles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, foodie, commodity-histories

I liked the book. I feel like I learned a lot and was challenged to examine ideas I had never thought of as political, socio/economic or faddish. I found fault with the book in that it read like a doctoral dissertation converted into a popular nonfiction work. The introductory chapter was horribly written. Chapter 1 and 2 were written like a pasted up ransom note of movie fame. Or gleanings out of a shredder. A few word quote here another there, some attempt at staying on a subtopic but jumping...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Sherry (sethurner) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, short-books, food, history

I had a hard time putting down this book; it spoke to my interest in history, my early interest in baking, and the politics of big industrial food production and marketing versus the country's current interest in sustainable food production and local eating. He suggests that the early popularity of white bread spoke to people's (white Anglo-Saxon) desire for hygienic and nutritious food, and also to their mistrust of bread that possibly came from dirty bakeries, handled by suspicious foreigners....more

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Sep 17, 2012 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of histories about a lot of strange things (bananas, toxicology, taxidermy, etc), and this one took me the longest to get through. I can't quite put my finger one what I found so troublesome about it, but I found myself really struggling to get through this book about what should have been an intensely interesting topic.

The histories of food industries are always strange and often filled with controversy, and the bread industry is no exception. Bobrow-Strain is clearly very knowl...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone cought up in the bread wars

Shelves: about-my-life, get-again

mar 4 2012 Npr this date get transcript weekend
There are now 3 cys in the local library system.
29 march still getting this book out of the library and working on the details

editionhttp://www.npr.org/blogs/thesa...

Is it ironic that last week Wonderbread and Hostess went into bankruptcy and was sold off. Dec 2012 All those hoarding twinkies will probably eventually put them up for sale on Ebay!

TOC from the library computer:
Preface ix
Introduction Bread and Power 1 (16)
1 Untouched by Human Hand...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Orsolya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: exposes, library-2, library, food

Growing up in an Eastern European household meant that while other children over-consumed on fluffy, white bead; my sandwiches were made with rye, Russian, or wheat. Feeling like an outsider, I simply craved a white bread “treat”. One can safely deduce that I looked forward to the annual school field trip to our regional white bread baking company. Now, as an adult, I live a mostly carb-free and low gluten lifestyle. This doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes crave a soft, warm, buttered piece of...more Growing up in an Eastern European household meant that while other children over-consumed on fluffy, white bead; my sandwiches were made with rye, Russian, or wheat. Feeling like an outsider, I simply craved a white bread “treat”. One can safely deduce that I looked forward to the annual school field trip to our regional white bread baking company. Now, as an adult, I live a mostly carb-free and low gluten lifestyle. This doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes crave a soft, warm, buttered piece of bread… because I do. So, if I can’t consume these devil carbs; I might as well read about them in Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s “White Bread: A social history of the store brought loaf”.

“White Bread” is your typical social history book on a commodity. Unlike those books which trek a timelime-account of the item’s birth and social historical presence; Bobrow-Strain divided “White Bread” into chapters which are less connected on a “big picture” account and more so explore individual arguments in a debate-style form. In fact, although “White Bread” is obviously extensively researched, broad in scope, and impressive in its depth of information, it reads like a college term paper. Meaning: that although the topic and effort is strong; the meaning and connection to the thesis is weak. Many times there are just too many arguments made in “White Bread” to “keep up” or provide proper reader retention. This does, however, provide a more accessible and less dry text.

A major problem with “White Bread” is that it hardly focuses on the loaf itself, as a reader would expect. Bobrow-Strain spends his efforts on the political issues, ups and downs, and movements related to the alternative food movement and industrialization vs. locally-grown foods. Although the research, advocated points, and descriptions are rather interesting; the connection to bread seems like an afterthought (only about half of “White Bread” boils down to actually being about bread).

Despite this, the bread history and facts (even if sporadic) are very compelling covering areas such as the actual creation of white bread, the flour used (bleached vs. unbleached), the first bread wrapping, creation of sliced bread, loaf shape, “enriched” addition to breads, propaganda/advertisements during war times, etc. Personally, I wish there was more of this prevalent.

Although “White Bread” isn’t the social history the reader may expect and does get lost in a plethora of information; Bobrow-Strain does manage to be engaging in each chapter with a steady and fast-moving pace. Provoking personal thought, “White Bread” encourages personal research and inspiration (I’m enticed to seek out the social histories of boxed cake mix or processed cheese).

While Bobrow-Strain’s tone appears to targe the Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s demographic; he remains unbiased and doesn’t specifically explain whether he supports or detests white bread and simply denotes its social rises, falls, and implications with arguments favoring both sides.

The finality of “White Bread” was weak with presentation, although the meaning was clear: society has returned to is roots of craving artesian, local breads and has shunned white bread as a low social class indicator. However, the execution plus the conclusion which attempted to recap the book’s underplaying themes; failed to provide a moving ending.

Aidenote: Bobrow-Strain combines notes and sources making it difficult to clearly pinpoint further reading.

Even though “White Bread” isn’t a social history or pop-cultural study as expected and instead emerges as a political study on white bread (which make sense because Bobrow-Strain is a professor of politics); the book did result in my perusing the bread aisle at the market and having some new-found respect for the now-lesser popular loaf. Not to mention, from now on, I will always remember July 6th as the day when the first sliced bread loaf was sold in 1928.
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Sep 12, 2012 Rocky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I requested my local library purchase this book because I just had to see what the author had to say about it.

This book went beyond my expectations.

I am so tired of turning on the daily news and finding out what the experts told us was bad for us now has no "proof" behind the recommendations.

I know that when my mom made bread, it was a nuturing feeling.

I know what kind of bread I like to eat and why. Now after reading this book I have new insights into the bread evolution.

Great job!

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Aug 20, 2012 Cristobal Cavazos rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought it was a great book, Bobrow-Strain's critique of the quest for "purity" in society and in our food should be replaced by the idea of a society in fermentation--- building something bigger from the many elements in our community and in particular to our food with a focus on fair wages in the good indistry, anti-racism and classism, local communes where all can participate and fighting back against corporate power which was in large part monopolized the
organic food movement.

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Jul 02, 2012 Daniel Farabaugh rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was great. When I first started reading it I thought that it was going to be the rantings of a new age foodie. But, he had a very balanced approach and was willing to point out the short comings of his own groups and beliefs. He did a great job of using white bread as a metaphor to show the changing dynamics of the consumer marketplace. None of the ways that he tied it together were a stretch and he did not try to make a larger case of importance. Great and engaging read.

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Mar 26, 2012 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book, as the subtitle states, covers the social aspects of white bread and its winding road of status from the top to the bottom. In just 200 pages, the book covers in details how attitudes towards white bread (and the bread itself) have been shaped by health scares, immigrants, wars and globalization.

Interesting facts abound in this book, such as that the current gluten free trend is nearly 100 years old and that even WW2 and FDR couldn't stop keep people from their white bread.

No matter...more

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Mar 21, 2012 AJ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, 2012, do-not-own

Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program in exchange for a review.

--

This book isn't just a history of bread, it's also a history of the social movements relating to food, and how they have used popular fears to champion industrial bread and then artisan bread. The author does a great job of discussing the (sometimes) unintended side-effects of these social movements, discussing how conservative ideas of eugenics, class and race were promoted along with dis...more

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May 06, 2012 Douglas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a Goodreads give away. The author is a food historian who looks at the role White Bread has played in our culture. In some ways the interest in white bread has taken a 180 degree turn. During the late 1800 people preferred homemade loafs. Then industrialization led to mass produced loafs. People were amazed with this break through which led to the "best thing since sliced white bread" saying. Also factory made loaves were thought to be more sanitary than those made by "dirty" workers in...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars

There were some great nuggets of trivia in this one, but ultimately it didn't hold my interest. I don't know if it was writing style or content or the fact that the author tries to relate nearly every major historical event in the US to how the country felt about bread. It was difficult for me to buy into the idea that what kind of bread we eat is a microcosm of life in the US.

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Jan 19, 2013 Louis Bouchard rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is about the history of bread in our culture, including the evolution of the following:
how its made
who makes
ingredients
a lot of history on the food purity movement
how its distributed
some of the economics behind it
some related culture

It was reasonably well written, but less engaging than some other books that I've read on food history, such as "Salt".

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Apr 27, 2013 Debra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobooks, food, history

An uneven book covering the socio-political history of white bread. The high points were the differing views over the years of what is healthful. Also the string of unintended consequences. On one hand it was too long to sustain my interest. Yet still so much of the narrative felt unfinished. Maybe a Mark Kurlinsky will do the subject justice - this did not. A 2.5 book.

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Nov 27, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting look at America's social relationship with the humble loaf. Had some interesting things to say, and parallels to draw, but gets a bit rambly as the author catches up to the present. I admit, after digesting it in mostly one sitting it kind of makes me want to eat a big loaf of Wonder bread just to spite the author for the rambly bits.

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Sep 23, 2012 Connie Chappell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Surprisingly interesting. I'd have to say this is about the best book about what one might call "food politics" that I've read. It's a very even-handed look at a lot of the ways people incorporate their own politics and their own agendas into what "the right way to eat" consists of. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool and I recommend it.

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Mar 02, 2012 rivka marked it as to-read

Recommended to rivka by: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Shelves: non-fiction, wishlist

The article/excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Education (note: subscriber-only content) is very interesting.

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May 08, 2012 Jody Koch rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

An interesting read. The book took a more historical view than I expected (although with history in the title I don't know why I was surprised). I found the rise and fall of white bread's prominence in society curious and it makes me wonder if i will see a time in my life when everyone scrambles for white bread again. The book can be dense and I skimmed parts, but I do feel like I learned something.

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