Kelly A. Spring, owner of The Fork Front and convenor of the IHR Food History Seminar, is a food history researcher. Her work examines the history of global food systems.

Kelly A. Spring skilfully chronicles the story of this humble industrial food product, which has delivered crucial sustenance to struggling peoples across the globe and embodies aspects of American culture writ large. This volume, complete with striking visuals and recipes, also reminds us that SPAM is funny and has long tickled our global funny bone. - Amy Bentley, Professor of Food Studies, New York University, and author of Inventing Baby FoodThis is an engagingly written but professionally conducted historical study of SPAM’s extensive socio-cultural significance: a protein source of last resort in hard times; an extraordinarily successful instance of industrialised, long-shelf-lived foodstuff that helped extend the reach of American ‘soft’ power worldwide, and, most strikingly, by the 2000s in South Korea, a prime feature of gift sets marking special festivals. - Anne Murcott, Honorary Professorial Research Associate, Food Studies Centre, SOAS, and author of The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging

• ForewordIntroduction1   SPAM to the Rescue: The Business and Politics of Processed Food2  SPAM and the March to War3  SPAM on the British Home Front4  SPAM in the Pacific5  SPAM and the Korean War6  SPAM’s Longevity and Enduring Appeal7  SPAMtown, USARecipesReferencesSelect BibliographyWebsites and AssociationsAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex