-This is an engaging and useful resource for students from middle school through college. School, public, and academic libraries will want to consider it. —American Reference Books Annual

-In this fascinating book, McLean examines cookbooks as a primary source, showing the enormous changes that occurred on the tables of Americans from the preindustrial period to the onset of World War II. Divided into three chronological sections, the book kicks off with a brief overview of the cooking and preservation methods, major foodstuffs, cooking equipment, cultural influences, and dining customs of the time. The first section includes recipes from three early American cookbooks; the second section demonstrates the rise in popularity of community cookbooks and includes recipes from the first known cookbooks written by an African American and a Hispanic; and the third section shows the rise of male-authored cookbooks and reflects the changes in cooking habits as a result of two world wars and the Great Depression. Each section also includes popular recipes-over 300 in all-taken from cookbooks of the time, ladies' magazines, newspapers, and family collections. The majority of recipes found in this perusable book, including peach ice cream, baked crab, and corn relish, can be made today, although only the most adventurous cooks might try the recipes for squirrel, squab, possum, and pickled pigs' ears. Recommended for the circulating collections of academic and large public libraries. —Library Journal