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Let Them Eat Beans? Class and American Food Discourse during the Progressive Era

ABSTRACT Using primary sources from home economics and social work archival collections, this article considers the discourse of American food and nutrition experts of the Progressive Era (roughly 1890 to 1920) in relation to class. These experts, a protean group that included scientists, home economists, social reformers, and self-styled experts on diet from largely middle-class or affluent backgrounds, were writing at a time of intense class conflict replete with numerous strikes and the violent suppression of labor. Through an analysis of experts’ commentaries and tracts on diet and nutrition, this article proposes that, while they evinced considerable condescension toward the poor, the experts noted in this article appeared earnest in their convictions that they were applying their expertise in ways that could help the working classes consume “economically” without sacrificing on nutrition. The poor and working classes, however, were justifiably skeptical, and in some cases, hostile, to dietary interventions and instructions.