Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in History

Department

History

First Reader/Committee Chair

Karp, Michael

Abstract

This thesis proposes that the development of foodways in the state of California occurred concurrently with the development and failures of Americanization and the American frontier. This is done with respect to the fact that California has a much longer history than that of the United States. While foodways are often discussed and examined within the ideas of nationalization, this becomes harder to do within the United States as there is no unifying idea of a national identity and any attempts to do so were hampered by the lack of consensus as to a singular identity. This is especially true in California with its distinct history, which included a large number of immigrants and emigrants. While contemporary literature of the Progressive Era might suggest otherwise, the on the ground realities of American life refuted the idea of a singular American experience. The necessity of survival in the underdeveloped West as well as the natural enticements of the “exotic” often proved to be more of a draw than any ideas of a disciplined yet bland food culture that relied on acceptable “white” foodways. This thesis looks to traveler’s accounts, newspaper articles, advertisements, and the papers of the Federal Writers’ Project America Eats to examine how ethnic boundaries were crossed in the necessity of eating and how California has developed its singular food culture.

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