Book Reviews

Bananas: An American History by Virginia Scott Jenkins, Smithsonian Press, Washington, DC, 2000, is a scholar’s view of the cultural history of America’s most amusing fruit. Jenkins relates that comedian Phil Silvers once announced, “There is something ludicrous about the banana.” Bananas is straightforward, detailed, meticulously documented, and well illustrated. I have not found a more thorough book on the banana so perhaps it is ungracious to quibble that readable as it is, the book lacks the lyrical feel one might have expected from a subject with such a-peel………Another book by the same author is The Lawn: A History of An American Obsession, also published by Smithsonian, and a superb explanation of why so many Americans are chained to their mowers. While not a book in the comestible arena, The Lawn is one we highly recommend.

According to author Richard Manning, farmers and experimenters who are marrying indigenous agricultural traditions to innovative science largely drive the new Green Revolution. Manning’s book Food’s Frontier: The Next Green Revolution, North Point Press, New York, 2000 explores pioneering agricultural work in places like Zimbabwe, Chile, India and Ethiopia, among other locales. Manning contends that safe, effective ways to feed the millions cannot derive from corporate giants like Monsanto who were part of the old Green effort 25-30 years ago. He travels widely, observing fieldwork, bio systems, and the work of scientists and farmers, listening to one another and learning. Government corruption in the nine countries he visits seems to have pushed growers into realizing they must rely on themselves to solve local food problems. Manning finds no one magic solution for the world yet remains encouraged by the dedicated people whose stories he relates.

The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999 is about an inch thicker than the most robust swordfish steak you might be inclined to toss on the grill. Not bed reading, but a magnificent guide from A-Z of all food, any food from Anteaters to Zabaglione. While reminiscent of my favorite such work, Waverly Root’s FOOD, this book is more extensive, though individual entries are shorter. Author Davidson wrote on fish and fish cookery until turning his attention to the wider world of food. Another such admirable encyclopedia of food subjects covering North America and Europe is Theodora FitzGibbon’s book, The Food of the Western World, Quadrangle/New York Times, 1976, no longer in print.