Food and Drink in American History is food writer and teacher Andrew F. Smith’s latest encyclopedic exploration of the culinary tastes and habits of the American people, having previously edited The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (Oxford University Press, 2004; 2nd edition 2013). Like the latter work, Food and Drink in American History follows an A–Z format tracing the historical developments of the American diet through individual articles, “American” in both works being almost exclusively the United States.

Food and Drink in American History is the product of a single author, though two other contributors are listed and acknowledged for the use of their work in 13 of the 664 entries. The 1,300 entries in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America 2nd edition are the collaborative work of some 350 contributors, including Andrew F. Smith.

Unique to Food and Drink in American History are 285 recipes culled from cookbooks and other sources used as historical illustrations of specific ingredients, techniques, or food ways associated with a particular article as, for example, the recipe for “Corn Dodgers” that illustrates the encyclopedia’s article on “Fair Food” (303). One Hundred twenty-nine reprinted primary source documents such as George Washington’s notice “To the Inhabitants of the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware” making arrangements for provisioning the Continental Army through its winter encampment (1067) reinforce the historical place of food in American life, as do the eleven articles tracing continuity and change in the American diet from PreColumbian food through the latest decade of the current century.

Articles in Food and Drink in American History provide see also references to related material as well as references for additional reading. An extensive and up-to-date general bibliography in Food and Drink in American History extends the source references while the “Guide to Related Topics” (xxiii-xxxiii) repeated in volumes 1 and 2 serves nicely to supplement the see also references by pulling related articles together under broad topical categories such as “Ethnic, Religious, and Special-Interest Foods,” “Government and Public Policy,” and “Transportation of Food,” to list a few such topical categories. Appendixes in volume 3 provide a listing of food history associations, organizations, and culinary history groups, a category also included in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.

The audience for which Food and Drink in American History is intended is “those interested in food and drink in American history, including students, foodies, and general readers” (xxxvi). Food and Drink in American History is suitable for high school, junior college, and public libraries that do not own either edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and find the price of the former better suited to their budget. College and University libraries as well as research public libraries and libraries with a special interest in the culinary arts will want to update to the second edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America if they have not already done so and regard the addition of Food and Drink in American History as an optional supplement.