Nancy Siegel – författare

The book that inspired the WMHT Public Media original documentary, Feeding the American Revolution.Food has long carried political meaning, and revolutionary America was no exception. In Political Appetites, art and culinary historian Nancy Siegel uncovers a richly layered story in which meals, ingredients, and even kitchenware helped Americans define what democracy should look—and taste—like. From tea boycotts and homemade "Liberty Tea" to Washington Pie, Election Cake, and Mammoth Cheese, Siegel shows how ordinary foods became vehicles for protest, persuasion, and celebration during the years surrounding the Revolution and the Early Republic.The book moves from the Stamp Act crisis of 1765 through the 1830s, revealing how practices as simple as cooking, planting a garden, or setting a table could carry distinctly political weight. Imported luxuries symbolized ties to Britain, patriotic ceramics and satirical prints circulated new ideas about citizenship, and the cultivation of native plants signaled pride in American abundance. Women, enslaved cooks, Indigenous herbalists, artisans, and political satirists all helped shape this shared culinary vocabulary, making food an arena where people without formal political rights could still participate in nation-building. Examining visual culture, broadsides, recipes, horticultural writings, and domestic artifacts, Political Appetites offers a vivid portrait of a society learning to express its ideals through the everyday acts of eating and preparing food. Siegel includes historical recipes—short, evocative, and workable for modern kitchens—inviting readers to experience these early flavors firsthand.Engaging and original, Political Appetites reframes familiar stories of revolution and independence by tracing the political meanings embedded in the meals people cooked, the gardens they nurtured, and the tableware they used. It reminds us that long before debates about fast food chains or "freedom fries," Americans were already shaping their politics at the table.

Why do we not know more of Susie Barstow? A prolific artist, Susie M. Barstow (1836-1923) was committed to expressing the majesty she found in the national landscape. She captured on canvas and paper the larger American landscape experience as it evolved across the nineteenth century. A notable figure in the field of American landscape painting, now is the time to bring forward her narrative. In Susie M. Barstow: Redefining the Hudson River School, the life and career of this fascinating artist are explored and extensively researched utilizing vast, and previously unknown, archival materials. This rare occasion to mine the depths of an artist’s life through letters, diaries, photographs, and sketchbooks provides a unique opportunity to present a comprehensive study that is both art-historically significant and visually stunning. Susie M. Barstow: Redefining the Hudson River School unpacks and positions Susie 'as a prominent landscape artist, whose paintings won her wide renown,' as her obituary would confirm, and explores the manner in which she struggled, flourished, and ultimately earned her living in the arts. This is her moment.