Pumpkin

Why do so many Americans drive for miles each autumn to buy a vegetable that they are unlikely to eat? While most people around the world eat pumpkin throughout the year, North Americans reserve it for holiday pies and other desserts that celebrate the harvest season and the rural past. They decorate their houses with pumpkins every autumn and welcome Halloween trick-or-treaters with elaborately carved jack-o'-lanterns. Towns hold annual pumpkin festivals featuring giant pumpkins and carving contests, even though few have any historic ties to the crop.

In this fascinating cultural and natural history, Cindy Ott tells the story of the pumpkin. Beginning with the myth of the first Thanksgiving, she shows how Americans have used the pumpkin to fulfull their desire to maintain connections to nature and to the family farm of lore, and, ironically, how small farms and rural communities have been revitalized in the process. And while the pumpkin has inspired American myths and traditions, the pumpkin itself has changed because of the ways people have perceived, valued, and used it. Pumpkin is a smart and lively study of the deep meanings hidden in common things and their power to make profound changes in the world around us.

Visit the author's website for more information: http://www.pumpkincurioushistory.com/just-another-squash-12000-bce-to-1600.html

Cindy Ott is an associate professor of American Studies at Saint Louis University and the author of Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon (University of Washington Press, 2012). In addition to publishing articles in the fields of environmental history, food studies, visual and material culture, and history and memory, Cindy has organized exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of the Rockies, community development projects at Saint Louis University, and historic preservation projects the National Park Service. Cindy is the graphics and Gallery essay co-editor of Environmental History and a regular grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities, from which she was awarded a grant in 2006. She was a fellow at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History during the academic year 2013–2014 and a visiting researcher at Stanford University's Bill Lane Center of the American West in 2012. She is currently writing a book with the working title, "Biscuits and Buffalo: Squashing Myths about Food in Indian Country" about the history of food consumption and production on reservations in the American northern Plains. She is also working on an article about the Miss Indian America pageant, which took place in Sheridan, Wyoming from 1952 to 1983.

Cindy Ott is assistant professor of American studies at Saint Louis University.

"Ott reexamines American history through the lens of the pumpkin. It is an undertaking that is both intellectual and fun."

Kelly Restuccia:

"Cindy Ott presents a fascinating study of America's darling squash. . . . Her thorough investigation of the renowned autumn icon takes a detailed look into American social and agricultural history."

Rae Katherine Eighmey:

"Her analysis certainly leads to a deeper consideration of this simple vegetable and how it is that Americans may still consider the country a farming nation, although the number of farmers had declined dramatically. . ."

Jan Johnson:

"There is much treasure to be mined from this engaging work of nonfiction, so carve out some reading time, and enjoy a pumpkin-tastic narrative."

Tori Avey:

"If you’re interested in taking a deeper look into the rich history of pumpkins, you will enjoy Cindy Ott’s Pumpkin. . . It’s definitely worth a read. Next time you bake a homemade pumpkin pie, you can serve it with a slice of history as well."

Michael Kammen:

"Cindy Ott digs deeply and creatively in furrowing a few familiar and many elusive sources in this major contribution to American agricultural and sociocultural history."

Nina C. Ayoub:

"After smashing our illusions about the Pilgrims, Ott continues her pumpkin iconoclasm. . . . The pumpkin as symbol comes full circle."

"An original, carefully researched, engagingly written, even playful and witty foray into the exploding field of food history by an up-and-coming star in the field. How appropriate that so delightful a vegetable has an equally delightful book to pay it tribute."—William Cronon, from the Foreword

"From the symbolism of pumpkins in classical and medieval mythology, to locavores and harvest festivals, Ott's paean to pumpkins is important, entertaining, and enlightening."—Warren Belasco, author of Food, the Key Concepts