Grain and Fire

Rebecca Sharpless is professor of history at Texas Christian University. Her most recent book is Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865-1960.

"Grain and Fire is a masterpiece, putting the author in the same company with influential, award- winning food scholars such as Marcie Cohen Ferris, Donna R. Gabaccia, John T. Edge, Michael W. Twitty, John Egerton, and Robert Ji-Song Ku. The book belongs in the pantheon of scholarly works on food history and critical food studies."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly "Grain and Fire takes a critical look at how baking practices reflected the hierarchical social relations and discriminatory mores of the region from before colonization to the modern day. . . . Sharpless adds an important volume to this literature to document the significance of baking to southern history and culture."--Journal of African American History "A diverse and entertaining analysis of the history of food and baking in the American South."-Journal of American History "As Sharpless traces the influences of Indigenous, American, and African techniques, she reveals the hidden meaning behind everything from the proportion of ingredients to the ingredients themselves."--Food Tank "Sharpless takes a clear-eyed look at an often-romanticized past and provides ample evidence to debunk common myths and misconceptions. For anyone interested in food history, food studies, or the American South, Grain and Fire is a pleasurable and worthwhile read."--H-Environment "Sharpless's attention to the materiality of baking, including the ingredients, the technologies, and the labor involved, further emphasizes the importance of the tradition throughout the South. . . . Sharpless demonstrates the power generated when grain meets fire and southerners bake."-North Carolina Historical Review "This deep-dive nonfiction food narrative shows painstaking research into the foodways of our past, tracking the movement of the people and ingredients that shaped our region's baking past."--Local Palate "Through the analysis of multiple documents-from cookbooks, travel journals, oral testimonies, and government records to food advertainment-Sharpless offers a history of southern baking . . . that does not sugarcoat the hard realities of colonization, slavery, racism, classism, and the commercial monopoly of the food industry."-Journal of Southern History "Within these eight chapters, Sharpless makes a persuasive case for why baking matters and how it both unites and divides people. . . . Recommended."--CHOICE