About a month ago I discovered an exciting place - The George Peabody Library. What makes this library so wonderful is that it consists of a huge selection of books written in the l800's and early 1900's. Although their speciality is an extensive selection of published genealogical sources, browsing through the card catalogue one can find books on almost any subject.
Starting this month I will be writing a column called "Historically Speaking" in the Vegetarian Journal. It will consist of a review of books written in the 1800's and early 1900's on subjects relevant to vegetarianism. I hope readers find the information interesting. Feel free to send in any comments you might have on the topics covered.
Historically Speaking
By Debra Wasserman
As we all know, today there are literally hundreds of vegetarian cookbooks available in libraries and bookstores. However, few of us have ever had the opportunity to look at vegetarian cookbooks written over fifty years ago. What did they look like? What type of recipes did they print? Did they primarily deal with health topics or were animal rights issues discussed?
I recently reviewed three old vegetarian cookbooks. Two were nothing spectacular. The New Cookery, by Lenna Frances Cooper and Margaret Allen Hall was originally written in 1914. It contains over 400 pages of ovo-lacto vegetarian recipes. Its best aspect is the food value charts it contains. The other book is The Unity Inn Vegetarian Cookbook, published in 1924 by the Unity School of Christianity in Kansas City, Missouri. It too is an ovo-lacto vegetarian cookbook consisting of over 300 pages. The foreward to the book is interesting in that it describes their vegetarian cafeteria which held 200 people and served thousands of individuals.
The third cookbook I read, written 75 years ago, is excellent. Called The Golden Rule Cookbook, by Maud Russell Sharpe Freshel, it was first published in 1910 and is 324 pages long. The majority of the recipes are vegan, with only a few containing eggs and cheese.
In the beginning of the book there is a photograph of a beautiful young child and two cows. The caption says "A carnivorous animal and her prey". This certainly sets the tone of her work, which strongly advocates animal rights. In the introduction, the author states that a true vegetarian would not wear furs or leather and that demand will justify manufacturing of good alternatives. She also stresses that humane advocates often eat meat which is a bad inconsistency.
The following is a quote from the preface of this book:
The superstition in regard to the value of flesh as food, has suffered more from being brought into more general knowledge, than from any new information, since the facts as to its harmful use are as old as the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, Seneca, Ovid and Plutarch. Indeed little of actual value has been added to Plutarch's two "Essays On Flesh Eating" (so often omitted from editions of his works) although his general statements have been elaborated by Darwin, Metchnikoff, Cauvier, and the food scientists of today.
It is very important that vegetarians stress that vegetarianism is not a new fad, but rather a diet that has long been advocated by respectable individuals. If we don't advocate vegetarianism, our diet may become popular among certain segments of the population, but as in the past, we will remain a minority.
