Description

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A study of feminist restaurants in the United States, from 1972 to the present.
 
In 1972, a restaurant called Mother Courage opened in New York—followed by more than 230 feminist cafes, coffeehouses, and restaurants across the United States over the next fifty years. Ingredients for Revolution collects their stories for the first time, showcasing the vital role these institutions played in the fight for women’s liberation, LGBTQ equality, and food justice. Alex D. Ketchum surveys these businesses’ various financial models and dives into broader issues of labor, food sourcing, and cultural programming to understand how these women yoked feminist and capitalist commitments toward a more equitable marketplace. Brimming with archival research, interviews, and photographs, Ingredients for Revolution is a fundamental work of women’s, food, and cultural history.

About the Author

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Alex D. Ketchum is lecturer of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies at McGill University and the author of Engage in Public Scholarship! A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication.

Praise For…

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"The first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present. [With Ketchum] we dive into the ways these institutions provided spaces and community to tackle questions around the intersections between feminism, food justice, queer rights, and other social justice movements while serving as training grounds for women workers and entrepreneurs, as well as what the landscape of queer feminist restaurants looks like today."
— History Is Gay

"Ketchum guides readers through case studies with strong, accessible writing (unsurprising, as she also authored Engage in Public Scholarship! A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication). Scholarship is supported through extended appendices composed of directories, notes, and references. Photographs and facsimiles of menus, posters, and ephemera are integrated throughout the text. Publishing this knowledge combats erasure while mapping queer and feminist history, both the savory and unsavory parts. Ingredients for Revolution is a catalyst for conversations about feminist cafe subculture, contextualizing its past and contributing to its preservation."
— Montreal Review of Books

"Ketchum’s passion for her subject is clearly conveyed, meticulously documented, and entirely compelling. [...] For anyone interested in contemporary feminist history and how it continues continues to develop around food, this is a must-read.
— Culinary Historians of Canada

"Ingredients for Revolution beautifully tows a fine line of being incredibly accessible to a general leftist and queer audience but also a product of a timeless quest for primary sources and combination of multiple methods to excellent effect . . . Ingredients for Revolution can certainly stand alone as a product of serious historical research, but it is also a powerful repository of feminist stories. I hope these stories will serve not just as lessons for would-be feminist restauranteurs but also to inspire the next generation of loyal customers to support spaces like the ones brought to life in this book."
— Gastronomica