Kent Whitaker

This book is a great piece of writing and research, and hit 3 areas that I particularly enjoy reading and learning about. As I read this book it brought to mind another covering WWII recipes published by the Imperial War Museum in England, but ‘Bread and Bullets’ has a wider scope than the IWM book.

The book itself is divided into 3 sections; history, memoirs and recipes that I tried, some of which with excellent results. The first section of the book covers all things related to the history of war-time food including famous people and food companies of that era. The reader is educated in the ways of the military cooks and bakers that fed the armed forces in a time of combat. Despite their often being ridiculed by those that had to eat their offerings, we learn that they did the best they could with the ingredients on hand and, often under some very stressful situations; trying to make sure that the fighting forces never went without a meal was no mean task, and the work that went into this adds new meaning to the phrase ‘an Army fights on its stomach’. The numbers that had to be catered for were absolutely mind-boggling and, until reading this I did not realise how much of defining factor food actually played in the war effort. Especially interesting from a historical point of view is the comparison between Allied and Axis food.

Memoirs from both military personnel and their families back home, add a human aspect to this book some of which make the reader chuckle and others which are quite poignant. Through their words, and the skill of the Author, the reader learns about victory gardening and the impact of rationing on the daily lives of real people. Reading these experiences makes one wonder why, in our times of plentiful food are we not more conscious of what we use, and aim to cut down our food wastage and even grow more of our own vegetables. The recipes, and yes the Author admits some of the ingredients are spelled wrong, are included for historical purposes only, but using modern hygiene standards and ingredients they are easily adaptable for any reader, like myself, who wants to try them out. After all how many readers of this book would have access to a WWII helmet to cook in? Also, as the reader who tries them out is not likely to be cooking for 100 people, any scaling down of ingredients needs to be double checked before trying out to avoid disastrous results.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, and putting my cooking skills and recipe adaptations to the test, there were a lot of proofreading errors that should have been picked by the Editor before this book went to print. The result of this was it really pulled from my overall enjoyment of the book, and I felt that the Author had maybe used a generic spell-check program when going through their work as some words just did not make any sense in context.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoy WWII history, be it from a military or home front perspective; also readers who enjoy books that include recipes that they would like to challenge themselves with would be well advised to give this book a look.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/09/20/review-bread-and-bullets-the-story-of-sacr...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (plus d'informations)

This book is a great piece of writing and research, and hit 3 areas that I particularly enjoy reading and learning about. As I read this book it brought to mind another covering WWII recipes published by the Imperial War Museum in England, but ‘Bread and Bullets’ has a wider scope than the IWM book.

The book itself is divided into 3 sections; history, memoirs and recipes that I tried, some of which with excellent results. The first section of the book covers all things related to the history of war-time food including famous people and food companies of that era. The reader is educated in the ways of the military cooks and bakers that fed the armed forces in a time of combat. Despite their often being ridiculed by those that had to eat their offerings, we learn that they did the best they could with the ingredients on hand and, often under some very stressful situations; trying to make sure that the fighting forces never went without a meal was no mean task, and the work that went into this adds new meaning to the phrase ‘an Army fights on its stomach’. The numbers that had to be catered for were absolutely mind-boggling and, until reading this I did not realise how much of defining factor food actually played in the war effort. Especially interesting from a historical point of view is the comparison between Allied and Axis food.

Memoirs from both military personnel and their families back home, add a human aspect to this book some of which make the reader chuckle and others which are quite poignant. Through their words, and the skill of the Author, the reader learns about victory gardening and the impact of rationing on the daily lives of real people. Reading these experiences makes one wonder why, in our times of plentiful food are we not more conscious of what we use, and aim to cut down our food wastage and even grow more of our own vegetables. The recipes, and yes the Author admits some of the ingredients are spelled wrong, are included for historical purposes only, but using modern hygiene standards and ingredients they are easily adaptable for any reader, like myself, who wants to try them out. After all how many readers of this book would have access to a WWII helmet to cook in? Also, as the reader who tries them out is not likely to be cooking for 100 people, any scaling down of ingredients needs to be double checked before trying out to avoid disastrous results.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, and putting my cooking skills and recipe adaptations to the test, there were a lot of proofreading errors that should have been picked by the Editor before this book went to print. The result of this was it really pulled from my overall enjoyment of the book, and I felt that the Author had maybe used a generic spell-check program when going through their work as some words just did not make any sense in context.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoy WWII history, be it from a military or home front perspective; also readers who enjoy books that include recipes that they would like to challenge themselves with would be well advised to give this book a look.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/09/20/review-bread-and-bullets-the-story-of-sacr...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (plus d'informations)

I received this book to read and review from netgalley. Being a big history buff - WWII is one of my interests - and getting more and more into gardening and eating better, I was thrilled with the idea of a book like this.

That being said, the book really falls short.

First, there's a lot of typos and grammatical errors, things that really should have been caught.

Second, there's so much repetition. I understand in any book like this, there is going to be some summaries and back info, but it just seemed like alot of the same information was repeated more often then was necessary.

The history section was a bit slow going, I already knew most of the history and was disappointed not to learn anything new. The recipes were interesting to read and to think about, but nothing I would try on my own. The memoirs section was by far the most interesting part of the book and by far my favorite as well, and the section I would recommend. I honestly thought more of the book was going to be like this section, so perhaps my own bias and preconceived notions colored my impressions of the book.

I'm rating the book 3 stars because the book was good, I just was left wishing there was more to the book (and not in a good way, like at the end of a particularly good novel).… (plus d'informations)

Don't ever judge a book by its cover and/ or title.....the author hands over a lot of control to publishers when he's completed the writing. I just don't get the negative reviews! WHAT were the readers looking for?

I found the book to be well written, informative and incredibly researched. A remarkably easy read with awesome photographs and yes.... there are lists you blathering idiots who complained about them.....lists that were important back in the day, and included in the book to show and teach us readers!

Was on the phone for hours last night with my dad who lived it..a walking living history book he is. He got so excited when i told him i am shipping the book to him. Those pics? Him and his friends. Those rations? He's tried almost every single one- won't eat SPAM to this day...

I salute Kent Whitaker and his endeavors to inform and enlighten ...... i'd read anything he ever writes.… (plus d'informations)