The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 281
673 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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2ooo The Food Administration Papers for Texas 281
The middle class on the whole viewed conservation as something
highly desirable. Doing with less, meant that you had been doing with
"more" for some time. And the Food Administration gave members of
the middle class a means for stating this publicly-and patriotically. It
was a form of conspicuous nonconsumption expressed by a pledge card
in your window or time enough to walk door to door to encourage neigh-
bors to follow your conservation lead. It is little wonder why those who
did not have extra felt insulted that the government had no clue about
their predicament.
The prism of class allows another series of questions to be explored.
What were the array of meanings attached to conservation according to
various social and economic classes of Americans? Was the conservation
bandwagon filled with others besides middle-class Americans who had a
surfeit of foodstuffs? What were the tensions between producers and
consumers? Was conservation a sleight of publicity to give people the il-
lusion of helping with the food crisis during World War I and perhaps
justifying the avoidance of other service?
Summary
The Food Administration papers related to Texas allow us to explore
how a collection of the federal agency might be used to answer some rel-
atively new questions about American culture and its response to war.
Although a sizeable portion of the records have been disposed of, a
great deal does remain. The papers of some states have been little used;
and those of other states may deserve another look. Since the conclu-
sion of the Food Administration, the collection seems to have been un-
evenly valued. Its sheer size may have discouraged researchers and may
have made deaccessioning easier. Or, the agency's short life when com-
pared to an agency like the Department of Agriculture, which carried on
the duties of food-supply management, may have made its contribution
seem less significant than it was. Or, historical inquiry lacked different
tacts for approaching the material. Whatever the reasoning, the remain-
ing papers deserve to be used in a variety of research.
Students and scholars interested in culinary history, institutional history,
business history, community history, and race, ethnicity, gender, and
class, may find the collection particularly useful. What awaits researchers
are Americans' attitudes about all these topics and about war as an excuse
to have the government so overtly involved with something so intimate as
the food on your table.
1917, Box 327, RG 4 (NA); Abstract reported by Mrs. Mary Aldis, Chairman of Food Conserva-
tion Committee, Lake Forest, Illinois, Nov. 26, 1917, Box 327, ibid.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001, periodical, 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/333/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.