Combining the study of food culture with gender studies and using perspectives from historical literary environmental and American studies Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt examines what southern women s choices about food tell us about race class gender and social power. Shaken by the legacies of Reconstruction and the turmoil of the Jim Crow era different races and classes came together in the kitchen often as servants and mistresses but also as people with shared tastes and traditions. Generally focused on elite whites or poor blacks southern foodways are often portrayed as stable and unchanging--even as an untroubled source of nostalgia. A Mess of Greens offers a different perspective taking into account industrialization environmental degradation and women s increased role in the work force all of which caused massive economic and social changes. Engelhardt reveals a broad middle of southerners that included poor whites farm families and middle- and working-class African Americans for whom the stakes of what counted as southern food were very high. Five moments in the story of southern food--moonshine biscuits versus cornbread girls tomato clubs pellagra as depicted in mill literature and cookbooks as means of communication--have been chosen to illuminate the connectedness of food gender and place. Incorporating community cookbooks letters diaries and other archival materials A Mess of Greens shows that choosing to serve cold biscuits instead of hot cornbread could affect a family s reputation for being hygienic moral educated and even godly.