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Taste of the nation
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Introduction
The book Taste of the nation is an analysis and reflection written by Camille Bégin, who
investigates an underutilized archive in Taste of the Nation. Papers from the Federal Writers'
Project (FWP) are housed in the National libraries. The America Eats project was unfinished.
However, the outbreak of World War II prevented the publication of regional food essays in the
book. Workers working on the America Eats project cataloged the cooking traditions of the
country when American food, like all kinds of folk practices, was displaced by modern industrial
processes. (Bégin, 2016, p.8). The book has five chapters that mainly discuss the different food
cultures present in America during the Depression-era.
Summary
During the Depression, authors like Eudora Welty, Dorothy West, and Zora Neale
Hurston were given the task of discovering the regional cuisine and developing a view or a flavor
of authentic America. Bégin discusses the Government's aim for this WPA initiative in the first
Chapter, called "America eats," to collect American cooking traditions, particularly cultural
practices based on the sensory experiences of communal meal festivals.” This database was
mistakenly transformed into a canvas where representative concepts were focused primarily on
race, ethnicity, class and sexuality. Writers w...