The book “Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream” was interesting, and I liked it. As Funderburg, the author of the book, notes, the history of cookery is generally omitted from scholarly discussions, and the book suggests that the opposite approach may be justified. Learning about the phenomenon of ice cream and its meaning for American history was a novel and interesting experience due to the manner in which the book presents it. Despite the author’s seemingly narrow focus on the ice cream industry in America, the writing can provide unique insights when put into the broader context of the course.
The book’s primary differences from other materials covered in this class are its avoidance of politics and other large-scale narratives and its light tone. The broad implications of significant events in history have been discussed in many other books. However, smaller, everyday occurrences such as decisions for ice cream marketing both affect society and reflect changes in it. As Provost et al. note, sugar is an essential component of ice cream, and its growing popularity can be linked to demand for the commodity and the practices such as the slave labor used to maximize its production. As such, the history of ice cream deserves coverage if historians want to gain a more comprehensive understanding of history in its less prominent aspects.
Similarly, the book avoids in-depth discussions of various controversies because sufficient descriptions of their events can be found in the course’s other books. Ice cream producers followed capitalistic values regardless of the broader developments in the country and followed whichever line of thought was the most profitable. As such, the political changes and debacles in the nation did not affect their performance directly. However, scholars can infer the population’s, especially the businesses’, responses to the various events that influenced America’s history from what happened with ice cream producers.