Garlic non Grata: Immigrants, Discrimination, and American Food Cultures in the Early Twentieth Century

Around the turn of the twentieth century, U.S. publications often described garlic as an alien food that was distinctly un-American. This talk examines the reaction to the immigrants and foods that introduced garlic into America, and the ways that cuisines served to differentiate communities. Garlic’s smell, both real and imagined, marked the people who consumed it, and a single food became a stand in for other ways of discriminating against new immigrant communities. This talk follows the history of garlic in the U.S. in the early twentieth century to highlight the interconnections between food, culture, and attitudes towards immigrant communities.

Kellen Backer is a historian who studies the social and cultural history of food, particularly the ways that science, medicine, and technology shape food cultures. He is currently a Part-Time Assistant Professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Sponsored by the Food Studies Program in Falk College.