The American story, told through food

Sometimes the best books are not on the bestseller’s list. Often a great read is one that you stumble upon much later than its original release date. Pat Willard’s America Eats! On the Road with the WPA — the Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, and Chittlin' Feasts That Define Real American Food is one of those unique books. Willard, whose culinary writing has been nominated for awards, discovered long-forgotten manuscripts written during the Great Depression hidden in the archives of the Library of Congress. These stories collecting dust were from a project called America Eats! commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers Project; the articles collected were never published after the government abandoned funding for the WPA efforts.