Discriminating Taste

How Class Anxiety Created the American Food Revolution

By: S. Margot Finn

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Paperback | 24 April 2017

At a Glance

Paperback
288 Pages

Age
17+

Grade
12+

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.0

Paperback

$74.80

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Winner of the 2018 First Book Prize from the Association for the Study of Food and Society

For the past four decades, increasing numbers of Americans have started paying greater attention to the food they eat, buying organic vegetables, drinking fine wines, and seeking out exotic cuisines. Yet they are often equally passionate about the items they refuse to eat: processed foods, generic brands, high-carb meals. While they may care deeply about issues like nutrition and sustainable agriculture, these discriminating diners also seek to differentiate themselves from the unrefined eater, the common person who lives on junk food.

Discriminating Taste argues that the rise of gourmet, ethnic, diet, and organic foods must be understood in tandem with the ever-widening income inequality gap. Offering an illuminating historical perspective on our current food trends, S. Margot Finn draws numerous parallels with the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, an era infamous for its class divisions, when gourmet dinners, international cuisines, slimming diets, and pure foods first became fads.

Examining a diverse set of cultural touchstones ranging from Ratatouille to The Biggest Loser, Finn identifies the key ways that "good food" has become conflated with high status. She also considers how these taste hierarchies serve as a distraction, leading middle-class professionals to focus on small acts of glamorous and virtuous consumption while ignoring their class's larger economic stagnation. A provocative look at the ideology of contemporary food culture, Discriminating Taste teaches us to question the maxim that you are what you eat.

Industry Reviews

"Finn offers an engaging and compelling explanation for the rise of the modern food movement. It's one that the leaders of the movement will no doubt find unsettling." -- Jayson Lusk * author of Unnaturally Delicious and The Food Police *
"Finn's compelling argument about the role of class in today's food culture is sure to have a major impact on how both scholars and foodies think about the food revolution." -- Charlotte Biltekoff * author of Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health *
"New Books Network - New Books in Sociology" interview with S. Margot Finn * New Books Network *
"'Good taste' is all about class anxiety" by Rachel Sugar
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9/26/20873938/good-taste-class-anxiety-s-margot-finn * Vox *

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