Refrigeration Nation
A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America
Published on 9. February 2014
248 pages
978-1-4214-1107-1 (ISBN)
Description
How we keep food cold while the house stays warm.
Only when the power goes off and food spoils do we truly appreciate how much we rely on refrigerators and freezers. In Refrigeration Nation, Jonathan Rees explores the innovative methods and gadgets that Americans have invented to keep perishable food cold-from cutting river and lake ice and shipping it to consumers for use in their iceboxes to the development of electrically powered equipment that ushered in a new age of convenience and health.
As much a history of successful business practices as a history of technology, this book illustrates how refrigeration has changed the everyday lives of Americans and why it remains so important today. Beginning with the natural ice industry in 1806, Rees considers a variety of factors that drove the industry, including the point and product of consumption, issues of transportation, and technological advances. Rees also shows that how we obtain and preserve perishable food is related to our changing relationship with the natural world.
Only when the power goes off and food spoils do we truly appreciate how much we rely on refrigerators and freezers. In Refrigeration Nation, Jonathan Rees explores the innovative methods and gadgets that Americans have invented to keep perishable food cold-from cutting river and lake ice and shipping it to consumers for use in their iceboxes to the development of electrically powered equipment that ushered in a new age of convenience and health.
As much a history of successful business practices as a history of technology, this book illustrates how refrigeration has changed the everyday lives of Americans and why it remains so important today. Beginning with the natural ice industry in 1806, Rees considers a variety of factors that drove the industry, including the point and product of consumption, issues of transportation, and technological advances. Rees also shows that how we obtain and preserve perishable food is related to our changing relationship with the natural world.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
12 s/w Abbildungen
12 Illustrations, black and white
File size
3,83 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4214-1107-1 (9781421411071)
DOI
10.1353/book.26771
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2016
Johns Hopkins University Press
€37.10
Article not available at the moment
Book
02/2014
Johns Hopkins University Press
€49.50
Article not available at the moment
Person
Jonathan Rees is a professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He is the author of Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life: A Brief Introduction and Refrigerator.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Inventing the Cold Chain
2. The Long Wait for Mechanical Refrigeration
3. The Decline of the Natural Ice Industry
4. Refrigerated Transport Near and Far
5. The Pleasures and Perils of Cold Storage
6. "Who Ever Heard of an American without an Icebox?"
7. The Early Days of Electric Household Refrigeration
8. The Completion of the Modern Cold Chain
Conclusion
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
Introduction
1. Inventing the Cold Chain
2. The Long Wait for Mechanical Refrigeration
3. The Decline of the Natural Ice Industry
4. Refrigerated Transport Near and Far
5. The Pleasures and Perils of Cold Storage
6. "Who Ever Heard of an American without an Icebox?"
7. The Early Days of Electric Household Refrigeration
8. The Completion of the Modern Cold Chain
Conclusion
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
