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OverviewDiet books contribute to a $60-billion industry as they speak to the 45 million Americans who diet every year. Yet these books don’t just tell readers what to eat: they offer complete philosophies about who Americans are and how we should live. Diet and the Disease of Civilization interrupts the predictable debate about eating right to ask a hard question: what if it’s not calories—but concepts—that should be counted? Cultural critic Adrienne Rose Bitar reveals how four popular diets retell the “Fall of Man” as the narrative backbone for our national consciousness. Intensifying the moral panic of the obesity epidemic, they depict civilization itself as a disease and offer diet as the one true cure. Bitar reads each diet—the Paleo Diet, the Garden of Eden Diet, the Pacific Island Diet, the detoxification or detox diet—as both myth and manual, a story with side effects shaping social movements, driving industry, and constructing fundamental ideas about sickness and health. Diet and the Disease of Civilization unearths the ways in which diet books are actually utopian manifestos not just for better bodies, but also for a healthier society and a more perfect world. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Adrienne Rose BitarPublisher: Rutgers University Press Imprint: Rutgers University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.503kg ISBN: 9780813589657ISBN 10: 0813589657 Pages: 244 Publication Date: 26 January 2018 Recommended Age: From 18 to 99 years Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsStarting a New Year diet? Cornell historian explores American history through diet books by Jeff Tyson--Cornell University Media Relations Office Why Do Humans Diet? Cultural critic Adrienne Rose Bitar reveals how four popular diets tell us an awful lot about our anxieties and fears, even beyond health.--Clever Cookstr Business for Breakfast, Money Radio interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar--Business for Breakfast - Money Radio Adrienne Rose Bitar lets you see contemporary American diet books as a continuation of the oldest, eighteenth-century American story: self-improvement as saving the world, and not vice-versa. She reads them as manifestos of a nineteenth-century American story, of America--of what was once called 'Americanitis'--as a disease: 'Modern life makes Americans sick.' Diet books are fictions, Bitar insists throughout, and not altogether negatively: many read them for the same reason we read novels. Which makes you wonder: if diet books were listed on the best-seller charts as fiction, would they drive out all the novels, or stop selling? --Greil Marcus Bitar's fascinating thesis is that diet books are ways to understand contemporary social and political movements. Whether or not you agree with her provocative arguments, they are well worth reading. --Marion Nestle professor emerita, New York University, author of Food Politics Instead of evaluating diets by their ability to promote weight loss, Bitar reads them as powerful stories. She discovered that these seemingly mundane diet books reinvent history, measuring the success or failure of civilization by the health of body and body politic. --Cornell Chronicle ?An Unofficial History of Rich Women and Their Diets --Town & Country Opinion: It's past time for migrant children labor laws to grow up by Adrienne Rose Bitar--San Jose Mercury News A multitude of controversial issues will encourage questions for discussion and analysis. This text is an appropriate addition to inquiry-type courses in food studies, the sociocultural aspects of food, and women's studies. Complex language and ideas make this work best suited for advanced students. Recommended. --Choice The Food Readers Organization 'Featured Author' Adrienne Rose Bitar --Food Readers New Books Network Podcast interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar--New Books Network Diet Books as Utopian Manifestos: A Conversation with Adrienne Rose Bitar --Nursing Clio The stories behind history's dumbest diets by Raquel Laneri--New York Post Bitar's very well-researched and intriguing analysis is worth the read, perhaps to those more interested in American studies than in utopian studies. For those whose interests overlap in the two areas, Diet and the Disease of Civilization is ideal. --Utopian Studies Review Diet and the Disease of Civilization An Interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar by David Gerstle--Platypus Blog Diet and the Disease of Civilization spotlight on 360 Magazine Online--360 Magazine Diet and the Disease of Civilization on Campaign for the American Reader by Marshal Zeringue--Campaign for the American Reader Diet and the Disease of Civilization on The Page 99 Test by Marshal Zeringue--The Page 99 Test Diet and the Disease of Civilization is a timely and beautifully executed piece of work, providing a distinctly new perspective on the histories of food, the politics of fitness, and the development of popular self-help guides. --Benjamin Reiss author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created our Restless World [Diet and the Disease of Civilization] argues that mythologies of the 'Fall of Man' underlie the Paleo Diet and three other regimes popular in the United States. --Chronicle Adrienne Rose Bitar lets you see contemporary American diet books as a continuation of the oldest, eighteenth-century American story: self-improvement as saving the world, and not vice-versa. She reads them as manifestos of a nineteenth-century American story, of America--of what was once called 'Americanitis'--as a disease: 'Modern life makes Americans sick.' Diet books are fictions, Bitar insists throughout, and not altogether negatively: many read them for the same reason we read novels. Which makes you wonder: if diet books were listed on the best-seller charts as fiction, would they drive out all the novels, or stop selling? --Greil Marcus Bitar's fascinating thesis is that diet books are ways to understand contemporary social and political movements. Whether or not you agree with her provocative arguments, they are well worth reading. --Marion Nestle professor emerita, New York University, author of Food Politics Diet and the Disease of Civilization is a timely and beautifully executed piece of work, providing a distinctly new perspective on the histories of food, the politics of fitness, and the development of popular self-help guides. --Benjamin Reiss author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created our Restless World -Diet and the Disease of Civilization is a timely and beautifully executed piece of work, providing a distinctly new perspective on the histories of food, the politics of fitness, and the development of popular self-help guides.---Benjamin Reiss -author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created our Restless World - Diet and the Disease of Civilization is a timely and beautifully executed piece of work, providing a distinctly new perspective on the histories of food, the politics of fitness, and the development of popular self-help guides. --Benjamin Reiss author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created our Restless World Adrienne Rose Bitar lets you see contemporary American diet books as a continuation of the oldest, eighteenth-century American story: self-improvement as saving the world, and not vice-versa. She reads them as manifestos of a nineteenth-century American story, of America--of what was once called 'Americanitis'--as a disease: 'Modern life makes Americans sick.' Diet books are fictions, Bitar insists throughout, and not altogether negatively: many read them for the same reason we read novels. Which makes you wonder: if diet books were listed on the best-seller charts as fiction, would they drive out all the novels, or stop selling? --Greil Marcus Bitar's fascinating thesis is that diet books are ways to understand contemporary social and political movements. Whether or not you agree with her provocative arguments, they are well worth reading. --Marion Nestle professor emerita, New York University, author of Food Politics Instead of evaluating diets by their ability to promote weight loss, Bitar reads them as powerful stories. She discovered that these seemingly mundane diet books reinvent history, measuring the success or failure of civilization by the health of body and body politic. --Cornell Chronicle Starting a New Year diet? Cornell historian explores American history through diet books by Jeff Tyson--Cornell University Media Relations Office Why Do Humans Diet? Cultural critic Adrienne Rose Bitar reveals how four popular diets tell us an awful lot about our anxieties and fears, even beyond health.--Clever Cookstr Business for Breakfast, Money Radio interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar--Business for Breakfast - Money Radio ?An Unofficial History of Rich Women and Their Diets --Town & Country New Books Network Podcast interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar--New Books Network Opinion: It's past time for migrant children labor laws to grow up by Adrienne Rose Bitar--San Jose Mercury News A multitude of controversial issues will encourage questions for discussion and analysis. This text is an appropriate addition to inquiry-type courses in food studies, the sociocultural aspects of food, and women's studies. Complex language and ideas make this work best suited for advanced students. Recommended. --Choice Diet Books as Utopian Manifestos: A Conversation with Adrienne Rose Bitar --Nursing Clio The Food Readers Organization 'Featured Author' Adrienne Rose Bitar --Food Readers The stories behind history's dumbest diets by Raquel Laneri--New York Post Fake Meat: the Future of Food? by Conan Milner--Epoch Times Bitar looks at the ways the multi-billion dollar diet book industry not only delivers dieting advice, but also tells readers how they should live. Through historical and literary analysis, Bitar examines four diets that, in their language, tell a story beyond food. Instead, Diet and the Disease of Civilization points out that dieting systems portray anxieties about modernity and American culture, showing readers how diets can cure a national disease: civilization. --EcoWatch Bitar's very well-researched and intriguing analysis is worth the read, perhaps to those more interested in American studies than in utopian studies. For those whose interests overlap in the two areas, Diet and the Disease of Civilization is ideal. --Utopian Studies Review Diet and the Disease of Civilization An Interview with Adrienne Rose Bitar by David Gerstle--Platypus Blog [Diet and the Disease of Civilization] argues that mythologies of the 'Fall of Man' underlie the Paleo Diet and three other regimes popular in the United States. --Chronicle Diet and the Disease of Civilization spotlight on 360 Magazine Online--360 Magazine Diet and the Disease of Civilization on Campaign for the American Reader by Marshal Zeringue--Campaign for the American Reader Diet and the Disease of Civilization on The Page 99 Test by Marshal Zeringue--The Page 99 Test Diet and the Disease of Civilization is a timely and beautifully executed piece of work, providing a distinctly new perspective on the histories of food, the politics of fitness, and the development of popular self-help guides. --Benjamin Reiss author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created our Restless World Author InformationADRIENNE ROSE BITAR is an American cultural critic specializing in food, health, and concepts of American civilization. She is a postdoctoral associate in the history department at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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