“Warner powerfully demonstrates the role of food in shaping and defining social identity as it pertains to African American life in the racialized United States. His careful analysis of archaeological materials supplemented with other sources such as quilts and blues lyrics—sources seldom used in historical archaeology—is instructive and inspiring.”—Charles E. Orser Jr., author of The Archaeology of Race and Racialization in Historic America
“A long-awaited and much-needed contribution to the study of urban African American identity through the zooarchaeological study of an extended African American family household in the Chesapeake. Warner makes a powerful case for the utility of faunal analysis in historical archaeology.”—Kenneth G. Kelly, coeditor of French Colonial Archaeology in the Southeast and the Caribbean“Warner’s wide-ranging study significantly expands our understanding of African American foodways, highlighting the ways people used their everyday decisions about food to help counter forces of racism and economic oppression.”—David B. Landon, University of Massachusetts Boston
“A timeless publication and significant contribution to the discipline. . . . Students of African America will find Warner’s book an illuminating study, and a strong example to follow.”—Historical Archaeology
“A striking interdisciplinary analysis. . . . Underscores the value of zooarchaeological analysis in informing our understanding of the past, especially of people devalued and muted in our mainstream historical texts.”—American Anthropologist
“Rooted in a meticulous study of the faunal remains excavated at an Annapolis, Maryland, house, Mark S. Warner’s book addresses sweeping questions about race, resistance, and identity.”—Journal of Southern History
“A timely and welcome addition to the literature on African American identity studies and to foodways more generally. . . . Mandatory reading for any courses concerned with the archaeology and anthropology of African Americans.”—Northeast Historical Archaeology
“Demonstrates the influence of mass consumer culture on African-American diets and
the role played by food in establishing African-American identity and resistance to racism and
oppression.”—Civil War Book Review
“Raises critical, important questions concerning African-American food consumption. . . . Eating in the Side Room asks readers to . . . consider the ways African-American families have exhibited agency even when alleviation of inequalities seemed nearly impossible.”—FoodAnthropology
