"American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O" is a deeply researched and entertaining survey of twentieth century American food.

Readers will learn of the role bananas played in the Iran-Contra scandal, how Sigmund Freud's nephew decided Carmen Miranda would wear fruit on her head, and how Puritans built an empire on pineapples. American food history is rife with crackpots, do-gooders, con men, and scientists all trying to build a better America-while some were getting rich in the process.

Loaded with full-color images and recipes from the author's vast collection of vintage cookbooks and historical advertisements.