Fred Harvey created the first chain of restaurants, and was the first famous brand name before Coca-Cola even become a household name. This book explores the man who created this chain of railroad eating houses, gave us the phenomenon Harvey Girls, and changed America forever. This book was a fascinating read. I hadn't realized that the Kansas City Union Station was pretty much completely designed by "Fred Harvey", with them owning every shop in it. Joplin had even had a Fred Harvey restaurant up to 1930. If you love history, Americana, and lots of information, this is a must read.
thanks for your kind words about my book. if your readers are interested, it just came out in paperback http://amzn.to/hsbKlc and I also keep a blog, One Nation Under Fred, with recipes, history travel tips and general Harvey-ana http://bit.ly/hA7nbG
ReplyDeleteby the way, just realized this review is part of the MO book challenge--which is a very cool thing. are authors allowed to offer prizes? Since Fred Harvey got his start in St. Louis, and his company was later based for decades in Kansas City, I think the winner this month--when Appetite for America was published in paperback--should have a copy of the my privately-published, 84-page Fred Harvey Cookbook. Please let me know if that would be OK. stephenfried@comcast.net
ReplyDeleteThat would be totally awesome and wonderful. The only sad thing is that since I'm running the blog/competition for our library, I'm not in the prize drawings every month. I list all my books though to help with our totals on the statewide competition. I'll be sad that I can't win your cookbook but it will make an amazing prize.
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