Hungering for AmericaHungering for America

"Hungering for America gives us a unique perspective on the experience of immigration. It tells the stories of three distinctive groups of immigrants, in their old worlds and in the new, through food. Once in America, Italian immigrants transformed the food of their upper classes and of sacred days into a generic "Italian" food that inspired community pride and cohesion. Irish immigrants, in contrast, loath to mimic the foodways of the Protestant British elite, diminished food as a marker of ethnicity. And East European Jews, who venerated food as the vital center around which family and religious practice gathered, found that dietary restrictions jarred with America's boundless choices. These tales demonstrate the role of hunger in driving migration and the significance of food in cementing ethnic identity and community. Book jacket."--Jacket.