Book Review: White Bread

What's the best thing since sliced bread? It just might be this book. White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf not only tells the history of factory bread production but reveals the social causes for and responses to industrial-made bread. It might sound like a dry topic, but the writing is never dull and the book is filled with fascinating observations and facts, from early vegetarian movements (led by Sylvester Graham, whose name was later given to the cracker, in the early 1800s) to the rise of enriched white flour (a post-Depression effort to improve Americans' nutrition in anticipation of World War II) to the shipment of American grain around the world (a Cold War tactic to lure drought-stricken European countries away from Communism). Modern gluten-free diets have their predecessor in the anti-bread trend of the 1920s, and today's fascination with old-fashioned baking is the mirror of the early-20th-century love of the newfound science and technology that produced the first industrial bread. Whether you love or loathe white bread, you won't look at it quite the same way again. -Michelle (Sunset)