As part of the Speaker Series, our very own Helen Veit will be giving a talk on Friday, April 19, at 3:30 pm in the Old Horticulture Conference Room. Helen Veit specializes in American history. Her first book, Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century (University of North Carolina, 2013) explores food and nutrition in the Progressive Era. Her next book, Small Appetites: A History of Children’s Food, examines the history of children’s eating starting in the early nineteenth century. She is the editor of the American Food in History book series, forthcoming from Michigan State University Press.
“For Infants and Invalids: Medicalizing Children’s Food in the Nineteenth Century”
Helen Veit
Friday, April 19, 3:30 pm
Old Horticulture Conference Room
Beliefs about children’s food have changed enormously over time. Today, many Americans believe that children have naturally delicate tastes. But Americans in the nineteenth century more often claimed the opposite: children had naturally delicate bodies, they said, and dangerously omnivorous tastes. This paper explores changing ideas about children’s food, a seemingly biological subject that continues to be deeply influenced by beliefs about medicine, mortality, the duties of good parents, and the nature of childhood itself.