Food studies has recently developed into a comprehensive field of research, which often explores the sociocultural, historical and anthropological implications of eating as an individual and communal activity. In the past fifteen years, attention has been particularly given to how the analysis of food, drink and cooking methods elucidates questions of race, ethnic tradition, colonial identity and nationhood. I will consider here two examples that fit into this particular area of food criticism: Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America's First Food by Andrew Warnes and Feast or Famine: Food and Drink in American Westward Expansion by Reginald Horsman. Savage Barbecue investigates the cultural origin of roasting practices – exemplified in the barbecue – in America. Warnes's study takes him back to colonial England and how writers reimagined Native American and Caribbean tribes as “savages.” Feast or Famine, on the other hand, proposes an ethnographic analysis of food, drink and culinary habits during the Western expansion in America. Drawing on journals and letters of the first American pioneers, Horsman discusses the principal components of nineteenth-century American diets and, in so doing, constructs an image of everyday life at the frontier.

The mythology surrounding the cooking and eating of meat has proved to be a prolific field of research, investigating the importance of “roasting” as a cultural and historical occupation. Savage Barbecue engages primarily with this specific area of food studies. Warnes begins his discussion with the history and etymology of the word “barbecue,” showing its evolution and changed significance. Following the term from its original form as barbacoa to its most contemporary rendition as “bbq,” the book explores how the practice of roasting meat evolved in America, from the time of Columbus to the present day. Warnes investigates how the practice was known among the Caribbean Indians and Native North Americans and how it became known in the European colonial mind as a symbol of cannibalism. The barbecue, therefore, became a synonym for “savage.” The history of the barbecue is particularly pursued through its literary interpretations in colonial England (in Aphra Behn, Edmund Hickeringill and William Dampier) and their transatlantic American counterparts (in William Byrd Cotton Mather and John Lawson). Using Ned Ward's The Barbacue Feast: or, The Three Pigs of Peckham as a primary resource, Warnes explores how the idea of barbecue (as we know it) became part of the English culinary repertoire, whilst being portrayed as an example of barbarism. In colonial literary works, images of Native American and Caribbean cannibal barbecues are exposed as part of a political strategy to maintain racial segregation in society. Warnes argues that the barbecue epitomizes the essence of the colonial “Other,” so that hopes of racial egalitarianism are destroyed by means of meat. The book also discusses the pit barbecue as the epitome and silent creator of a trans-American culinary identity. Going back to the early days of modern America – and gaining historical evidence from important texts such as Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia – Warde discusses how during slavery times the pit barbecue was related to the construction of racial stereotypes (of African slaves as “workers”) and the perpetration of ethnic prejudice (especially in Virginia and North and South Carolina). Warnes also considers documented photographs from the mid-1940s to see how, even in the twentieth century, the pit barbecue was regarded as a racialized practice that was bestowed by white landowners to workers – especially male – of African descent. Warnes's argument is lively, engaging and well written; he sets out his critical intentions clearly in the Introduction and pursues them analytically throughout the following chapters. It is particularly compelling how Warnes uncovers the barbecue as the exemplification of Europe's invention and imagistic colonization of America (what he calls “the Americanisation of America”) in a manner which is comparable to Said's notion of a European Orientalization of Asia. The wealth of information on the history of the barbecue makes Savage Barbecue a very engaging read, which provides an important insight into the relationship between food, colonization and cultural identity.

In similar vein, Horsman's Feast or Famine explores the historical and cultural development of food habits among the first settlers in the American West. The book follows the lives of early Western pioneers, giving equal attention to men's hunting excursions and women's improvised home cooking. Horsman not only looks at examples of meat favoured by the Western settlers – including turkey, deer, elk, bear, beaver and, of course, buffalo (bison) – but also discusses how the pioneers gathered and consumed dandelion, pigweed, wild fruits, berries, wild honey, sage and nuts. Horsman also discusses the evolution of cooking utensils, agricultural techniques and transport that accompanied the pioneers on their journeys. The book follows how food availability and methods of preparation influenced the migration of settlers in the West, especially on the Oregon Trail and the Ohio–Mississippi river systems. Horsman offers a detailed outlook on the recorded eating habits of the first explorers of the American frontier, highlighting how their journeys into the wild were often characterized by food scarcity and the occasional, unappetizing consumption of virtually inedible birds and animals, such as hawks. The book specifically emphasizes the difficulty in adaptation encountered by the explorers and how that difficulty made their eating habits variable and difficult to generalize, confirming the precarious nature of everyday life in the West. Horsman also points out how the expansion into the West was slowed down on numerous occasions not only by food shortages and hostile living conditions, but also by belligerent encounters with local Native American populations. Nonetheless, the book also shows how the pioneers often adopted a number of culinary preferences and resources from the indigenous populations – who willingly shared their crops with the settlers. In the light of the difficulties encountered by the Western settlers, Horsman gives a sympathetic account of their ability to adapt, endure and provide food and drink for themselves and their families. In placing an emphasis on meat preparation and consumption, Feast or Famine shows an affinity with Savage Barbecue: both books highlight the importance of eating the flesh of animals in the development of group identity. Horsman's book is well written and meticulously researched. Although obviously written from an academic perspective, Feast or Famine proves to be informative and interesting without being intellectually overdemanding and overwhelming for the reader. It provides a clear outlook on the culinary habits of American Western pioneers, which feels personal and believable due to the impressive amount of letter and journal extracts from the time. Horsman successfully applies his long-established expertise in cultural research to engage with a specific area of American history. The book's emphasis on food and drink effectively renews the importance of the “everyday” in the wider historical spectrum.