Professor Kraig writes:

How many people know that what we eat today, and what we buy in our supermarkets, is the result of a war fought 150 years ago?

War is always a catalyst for change, and of all American wars, none changed the country more than the Civil War. That war accelerated trends and currents that were already going on, from economics, to social conditions, and cultural perceptions. For instance, would we have had a Civil War if not for intransigent political leaders who expressed the cultural thought economic forces, and social structures of their various sections of the nation? So, the first war with mass mobilization of men and materiel broke out. And with it came what are now familiar effects: centralization of authority and economies into the hands of governments and larger business entities; technological change and intensification; and new plenty of other political and social ideas percolating through society. All of these have to do with food production because, as Napoleon supposedly said, an army travels on its stomach.

The North won the war because it produced more food (and arms) and organized its distribution better than the South. The ultimate result of all this was massive changes in the way that Americans grew, shipped, and processed food-and, of course, in what they ate. What we eat today can be said to be a direct result of events that unfolded just 150 years ago.

"Whatever you eat, you’re eating history.  Food is the driving force in human history, from changes in early human morphology to human transformation of the natural world.  The whole story of America really comes down to food, its production, and its consumption.  No single culinary creation tells us more about the whole story of world and American food than the submarine-hoagie-grinder-torpedo-zeppelin-bomber-hero-garibaldi-Italian-musalatta sandwich. This talk will be about that world and American history through the deconstruction of that great American creation." 

Bruce Kraig is Professor of History and Humanities, Emeritus, at Roosevelt University, where he taught a wide variety of courses in history, anthropology, and popular culture, and since retiring from Roosevelt he has lectured about food at the culinary school of Kendall College, Chicago.  Professor Kraig has appeared widely in the electronic media as writer and on-camera host and narrator for a multi-award winning PBS series on food and culture around the world. His publications range from books and articles in academic journals on European and world prehistory through American history.  He has written hundreds of articles on food in newspapers, journals and for encyclopedia.  His books about cookery and culinary history include Mexican-American Plain Cooking; The Cuisines of Hidden Mexico; Hot Dog: A Global History; Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America; editor Cooking Plain: Illinois Style (2012), co-editor (with Colleen Sen) Street Food Around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (2013), co-editor (with Colleen Sen and Carol Haddix) Food City: The Encyclopedia of Chicago Food (2017) and A Rich and Fertile Land (2017). He is the editor of the “Heartland Foodways” book series for the University of Illinois Press.  Professor Kraig holds a BA from UC Berkeley (1962) and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (1963, 1969).

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