Perfection Salad: Woman and Cooking at the turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro

I read this book because I like the author's other book/ (Very quick review in this post) I liked this one just as much if not more then the last one.

The book is about the Domestic Science movement around 1900. This was a group of women reformers who thought that house work was important and should be treated "rationally". At the same time the movement though that women should remain in the the domestic sphere. They advocated for women to be educated so they could be better housewives.

The book also featured many things I would rather not eat called salads. I do not believe mayonnaise and marshmallows should be part of the same dish.

So I found the subject material of the book fascinating, though I'm not convinced by the author's arguments that these women and responsible for the general blandness of American food. (Though they did praise that disgusting substance know as American cheese) Still I think there is lot more going on in that story -- including mechanization and various corporate ploys.

So I very much enjoyed the subject matter of this book, and found it very informative, but didn't find the author's arguments about "what it all means" that convincing.