An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research, Alice P. Julier analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of hosts and guests at dinner parties, potlucks, and buffets. She finds that when people invite friends, neighbors, or family members to share meals within their households, social inequalities involving race, economics, and gender reveal themselves in interesting ways: relationships are defined, boundaries of intimacy or distance are set, and people find themselves either excluded or included.
| Cover Title Contents Acknowledgments 1. Feeding Friends and Others 2. From Formality to Comfort 3. Dinner Parties in America 4. Sweetening the Pot 5. Potlucks 6. Artfulness, Solidarity, and Intimacy Notes Bibliography Index | A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2014. — A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2014.
| Alice Julier is an associate professor and the master's program director of food studies at Chatham University.