ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As a food enthusiast, I have found that the company and conversation often matter more than what’s eaten. On the lonely path to writing a book, there were luckily intervals when I had to pull my head away from sources, and eat with smart friends. I am indebted to many people and institutions for providing intellectual and physical sustenance.

I thank the David Library of the American Revolution, the Huntington Library, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the William L. Clements Library, the History Department at the University of Texas at Austin, the Faculty of Humanities and the History Department at the University of Southampton, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and International Security Studies at Yale for supporting this project. This work would have been impossible without help from archivists, librarians, and reading room staff at these institutions. I am grateful to my colleagues at Cardiff University for welcoming me into the department, and I thank the Cardiff Open Access Support Team for generous funding to make this monograph open access. People offered helpful feedback at meetings and seminars hosted by the American Historical Association, the Association for the Study of Food and Society, the British Group in Early American History, the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, the Institute of Historical Research, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, American Studies at the University of Manchester, History at the University of Nottingham, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the History Department at Queen Mary University, the Society of Early Americanists, the Société d’Etudes Anglo-Américaines des XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, and the Yale Early American History seminar. I acknowledge Diplomatic History and Slavery and Abolition for publishing some of my first thoughts on this topic, and allowing me to revise and expand upon my ideas in chapters 2 and 8 of this book. I also thank the anonymous peer reviewers who read and provided comments on this book when I submitted it to Cornell University Press.

No Useless Mouth started growing roots over a decade ago. At Vassar College, Sasha Litwin was the first to suggest that I write about food and history. She and Chelsea Backer, Kofi James, Anna Rogers, and Kathryn Wilbert were the best brunch partners, fierce friends, and devoted eaters of multiple pieces of cake per day. I thank Lisl Prater-Lee for too many swim-meet sandwiches to count, and for cheering me on in and out of the pool. The history and English departments helped me figure out how to think and to write. Classes with Bob Brigham, Miriam Cohen, Rebecca Edwards, Priscilla Gilman, Lydia Murdoch, and Everett Weedin were foundational. Special thanks go to James Merrell, who taught me a few crucial matters of form and style as I began to study food in early America, and who continued to provide feedback when it came time to revise this book.

At the University of Texas at Austin, Carolyn Eastman offered vital support, first as I thought about cannibalism and then as I began to write about food. Erika Bsumek, Elizabeth Engelhardt, Neil Kamil, Robert Olwell, and James Sidbury offered some of the first commentaries on these pieces of work. Marilyn Lehman was a graduate coordinator extraordinaire. I owe gratitude to Rachel Ozanne for her excellent taste in polka dots, for her willingness to eat my cookies, and for constituting one-half of the House of Rachels. Ben Breen, Felipe Cruz, and Alexis Harasemovitch Truax conjure grilled sausages around a camp grill, floating conversations in Krause Springs, and early afternoon trips to the Salt Lick. Libby Nutting and Dharitri Bhattacharjee were there to catch up over coffee when we were all in town. Angela Smith made an excellent bicycling companion. I am also obliged to the Subalterns for facilitating work/life balance through poorly played soccer, and for Draught House gatherings with José Adrián Barragán, Juandrea Bates, Chris Dietrich, Jonathan Hunt, Renata Keller, Sarah Steinbock-Pratt, Claudia Rueda, Kyle Shelton, Cameron Strang, Sundar Vadlamudi, and Susan Zakaib.

I did a lot of eating on the road. On return visits to Austin, Rebekah Brewer, Richard Huey, their kids Sophia and Hendrix, Jimmy Myers, Caroline Foley, and Jay Wiltshire were always willing to meet on Sundays for dim sum. Josh Keidaish and Krisna Wymore provided a fabulous home away from home; thank you for (finally) taking me to Polvos. Rachel Laudan provided a thoughtful, generous sounding board over cups of coffee. In New Haven, Alejandra Dubcovsky did the same. Jamie Miller and Sarah Kinkel’s knowledge of beer and sushi vastly improved life there. Amanda Behm knew the best places to eat cheese. Kristina Poznan and Leslie Waters fed me incredible Hungarian food in Williamsburg. Tater tots with Ted Andrews in Providence fueled me almost as well as the conversation. In Boston and then Philadelphia and Baltimore, Chelsea Backer and Nick Lekow offered excellent company for Szechuan, and delightful home-brewed beverages. Christopher Heaney was there to talk writing and weird history in Austin and Philadelphia. In New York, Kofi and Whitney James never failed to host dinner with enchiladas, or to meet for amazing Turkish food. Chris Dietrich and Verónica Jiménez Vega provided dinners of fish tacos, trekked to the East Side for breakfasts of scones and tea, and to the West Side for Hungarian pastries.

Meals at conferences have yielded opportunities to talk through ideas in progress. I had so much fun eating Mexican in London with Kelly Watson and Caroline Dodds Pennock, and discussing (but not practicing) cannibalism. I remember catching up over drinks—at the AHA with Laurie Wood, and at the Britain and the World conference with Mikki Brock. I ate far too much Indian food with Jessica Hower in Southampton. I am indebted to Christian Ayne Crouch for a London breakfast over which she shared a great deal of practical book writing tips and valuable opinions about ways to supplement my spice cabinet. Claire Jowitt has been generous with her time and willing to share strategic advice, and I will remember several delicious dinners in Paris. I always look forward to meals at conferences with Kate Grandjean, and I think of a long walk to the Green Goddess in New Orleans.

I acknowledge all members of The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History, and particularly Benjamin Park for starting the whole thing, and for meeting me for a Tex-Mex breakfast on a Houston-to-Austin trip. I admire Juntoists Sara Georgini and Tom Cutterham for insisting at yearly BGEAH meetings that food should always come on plates. I thank Christopher Jones for grilling inspiration and conversations about black voyagers, Sara Damiano for tacos and her thoughts on women’s history, and Joe Adelman for talking teaching and for giving me major pancake goals.

Many scholars have a temporary academic center or home that shaped their thinking and writing, and the McNeil Center was mine. I thank Daniel Richter for being the best of directors, and for providing tough and honest feedback during this foundational year. Amy Baxter-Bellamy and Barbara Natello ensured that their doors were always open, and alerted hungry fellows when seminar leftovers were available. I cannot overstate the value of lunches from various food trucks with the entire 2011–2012 cohort, especially Sari Altschuler, Chris Parsons, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, Dael Norwood, Seth Perry, Nic Wood, and next-door office mates Whitney Martinko and Matt Karp. Jessica Roney and Adam Choppin supplied many expertly crafted cocktails and dinners, and a place to stay in Philadelphia. It was an honor to cook for them; a simple chicken soup with dumplings shared with them, Lexi, Glenda Goodman, and Mitch Fraas will stick with me for a long time.

Moving to England has been such an adventure in teaching, thinking, and eating. In Exeter, I think of Richard Toye and Kristine Vaaler having us over for fish suppers, and meeting for dinners out in town. Fish and chips always tasted better after bike rides to Dart’s Farm and the Turf Locks with David Thackery. I have good memories of Chinese takeaway shared with Tehyuhn Ma and Andrew Heath, and am glad that they introduced me to the Peak District in Sheffield. Exploring Somerset’s cideries was much more fun with Katrina Gulliver alongside me. In Wales my Cardiff colleagues, especially Padma Anagol, Lloyd Bowen, Emily Cock, David Doddington, Federica Ferlanti, Mary Heimann, James Ryan, Bronach Kane, Eve MacDonald, Jan Machielsen, Angela Muir, Helen Nicholson, Kevin Passmore, Ian Rapley, Shaun Tougher, Stephanie Ward, Keir Waddington, and Mark Williams, provided friendship, advice, coffee, crisps, pints, and necessary lunches at Aberdare Hall. It’s been a blast living in Bristol. I thank Billy Davis for nights of red wine, Spanish hampers, and the occasional barbecue. I’m so glad that Ryan Hanley and Jessica Moody moved to town, and I look forward to many more Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, harborside drinks, and picnics in the park. I’ve also enjoyed sharing pints with various Americanists who have come to visit, especially Ann Little, Drew Lipman, and Jessica Roney.

I owe a great deal to my students at the University of Southampton, particularly the 2015–2016 cohort of “America: From Revolution to Republic.” Teaching the events and aftermath of the American Revolution, and hearing students’ takes on those occurrences, helped give shape to this book. I am enormously grateful to my Southampton colleagues, particularly Mark Cornwall, David Cox, Chris Fuller, George Gilbert, Neil Gregor, Maria Hayward, Jonathan Hunt, Nick Karn, Claire Le Foll, Sarah Pearce, Christer Petley, Charlotte Riley, Francois Soyer, and Helen Spurling, for collegiality, friendship, and the occasional pint at the Crown. Kendrick Oliver, Chris Prior, and Mark Stoyle kindly read my work, and I hope improved it. Chris Woolgar was a model mentor; it was a privilege to share teaching and office lunches together. I thank Priti Mishra for her presence next door, and for occasionally eating far too much cheese with me. I don’t know what I would do without Eve Colpus, who was always willing to catch up over Thai food. I am glad that it took less than a year to confirm our red and white wine preferences.

At Cornell, I thank Michael McGandy, first for his unflagging support on this project and then for his thoughts on all things bourbon-related. I thank Bethany Wasik for her Twitter support and wise footwear choices. I thank Kate Gibson at Westchester Publishing Services for overseeing production, and Kelley Blewster for her meticulous copyediting.

Where there is food, there is family. I write with memories of my dad, the first Dr. Herrmann. I cannot narrow down my mom’s cooking to one meal, so will call up the image of everything bagels with lox and scallion cream cheese during weekends at home. Thank you for everything, Mom—but especially for teaching me to love food and cooking. I think fondly of eating with Amy and Peter Coppernoll, but nights of tapas and wine in Barcelona stand out the most. Life in England makes the prospect of Thanksgiving in Oklahoma less feasible than in past years, but during that season I always think of bowling for salami with the Nevards and Erlichs. In San Antonio, Don, Andrea, and Sean Palen provided days of excellent card games, and delicious spaghetti.

Over the course of writing this book and the search for academic jobs, dumplings and the quest to find the best of them provided grounding. I am so lucky that Marc Palen has been willing to seek them out with me. From Boston, to New York, to Sydney, Saigon, Southampton, Exeter, London, and Bristol, it’s been an adventure. I thank him for loving me, even when I’m hangry.