Edible Secrets: A Food Tour of Classified U.S. History

by Michael Hoerger, Mia Partlow, Nate Powell (Illustrations)

More than 500,000 declassified memos, debriefings, and transcripts were combed, contextualized, and graphically narrated with food as a theme in this collection. Providing a voyeuristic insight into the U.S. government, these documents are like reality TV for politicos and foodies alike.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Food, Historical, Comix, Comic Book

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep going back and forth on whether or not this book delivers on what is advertised. I think in many ways it does, and yet it didn't completely satisfy my expectations. I think I wanted more classified stories from US history where food plays a major role, as it does in the poisoning attempts on Castro; and there simply may not be a whole lot of these declassified food documents available.

Otherwise, as is the case with many books from small publishers, this suffers from an abundance of typos. Which is a shame.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think of this as a brief intro to U.S. Government secrecy. It's basically a handful of declassified U.S. government secrets and commentary on them. For people who aren't aware of the U.S.'s efforts to poison Castro with a milkshake, or experiment on citizens with LSD, etc., this is a good entry level primer. It's all been organized into a graphic format and loosely vaguely organized around food. Meh.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems this book doesn't know what it wants to be. Light-hearted satire? Radical, subversive, serious info? It goes back and forth between being a little silly and pretty darn preachy. And then out of nowhere it talks about recording artists doing "backmasking" and I can't tell if the author really thinks The Beatles put hidden backwards messages in their music or if this is meant as humorous satire. A frustrating read, to say the least.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

in need of a good editor; otherwise, some interesting tidbits

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice approachable intro - organizing through the lens of food helped stuff feel cohesive while covering a lot of ground. Also appreciate the page design and use of actual declassified documents.

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this 2.5 stars. The book actually contains some quite interesting content, but the delivery falls flat, making it a slog to get through.

[Hungry Rye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, informative, and unique. This is a solid primer for folks getting into learning about the CIA and declassified documents in connection with left wing movements.

[Vi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light enough reading that it would be great as a teen read. I'm curious as to why it wasn't listed.

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Left-leaning (more like all-the-way-over-to-the-Left) political commentary seeded by declassified secret and confidential U.S. government documents loosely gathered around the theme of food. When I say loosely, I really mean it in a generous way, as there is no unifying theme here, or rather, the unifying theme or thesis (governments, especially the U.S. government is not benign and does not hesitate to harm its own citizens to oppress them and bully other countries to further its capitalist aims) has nothing really to do with food. Sure, the documents all mention some food, and in one case (Coca-Cola), the main thesis and food really do have something substantial to do with each other.

Nevertheless, if you don't mind left-wing political opinions strongly expressed to interpret each document, this is a nice cross-section of American history from the lens of classified documents, from the Black Panthers and the Civil Right Movement to Cold War efforts to Coca-Cola and the spread of American brand of capitalism in the world. Just to read the documents neatly presented here in a nice format was interesting. Unlike those who claim they didn't learn anything new from the book, I learned a lot, probably because I am not familiar with American history in general and don't know much about the Civil Rights Movement, for example, beyond the most publicized key events. It is hilarious that Coca-Cola's relationship with the White House is so transparent (something we don't see [the transparency, I mean] in my country or outside the West in general). And so it is shocking that the voting American public is so OK with all this.

Most importantly, it will be near impossible not to think about the Rosenberg case as I have my Jell-O pudding snack!

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This expansion of a zine tells the story of amerikan government conspiracy through the filter of cases which have some connection with food. Each chapter includes images of formerly-top secret, recently-released documents from the government, an essay explaining the case, and additional graphs, lists, and charts. We learn about the framing of Fred Hampton, CIA experiments with mind control, the plot to assassinate Castro, and more.

Don't expect any sequential art here, even though there are illustrations by Nate Powell. As someone who harbors an amateur historian's love for Abbie Hoffman and the yippies, I really enjoyed the way these authors brought primary government documents to life.

The only part that dragged for me was a pair of chapters about Coca-Cola's far too close relationships with every president since Eisenhower. Although I'm totally a fan of sticking it to major corporations, those chapters didn't contain the personal stories inherant to most of the other pieces.

The book is very visual and dynamic, and feels like the beginning of what could become a life's work.

[Emilia P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spend a lot of time at the Public Library. Sometimes I talk to the people I'm working with about comics -- sometimes they say, oh the graphics guy knows Nate Powell, and then the graphics guy says oh, he illustrated my book and then you go read his book!

This book is about food featured in CIA/FBI/secretive government type investigations -- Castro's milkshake, the Rosenbergs' Jello Box, presidential connections to Pepsi and Coke, etc. It was basically in a zine format, and had (from what I know of zines) the biased but earnest reporting of events that seems so common to them -- it was great if not super-educational. Reproductions of the original documents, infographics, and chapter illustrations by the Bloomington-based Nate Powell (he's pretty cool) added a lot of visual flavor, as well.

It piqued my interest in how all these secret spies work, and I'm a sucker for primary sources, so well done, dudes. Yay!

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshed my memory about a few things, but I didn't learn anything new here. That's cool, however, because I was simply looking for comics or graphic novels to keep around the classroom. When I noticed Fred Hampton on the cover I thought I'd check it out.

The book is decidedly Left-leaning, but would likely appeal to Libertarians concerned with government over-reach in citizen surveillance and harassment. Using declassified documents featuring food is an interesting way to tell these stories. I think my middle-schoolers will dig it.

I note that today some Citizen's Commission to Investigate the FBI members came forward to claim responsibility for the Media, PA event in '71. This little tome ends with that tale, and the exposure of COINTELPRO.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It was interested to see the connections between food and these declassified documents, but I could do without the political commentary. Or, they could at least present a more balanced view, because this leans WAY to the left. Not that I disagreed with all of the points made, but you could at least give some of the political reasoning behind some actions instead of just saying "everyone in government is bad."

[Ainsley kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked it but it's sort of shallow. Still, anyone who thinks states are benign service providers to their citizens and providing them greater access to our lives would make our lives easier/streamline services should read this. states are fucked.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little book that uses food as a centerpiece to talk about some really important and timely issues. Awesome illustrations. A perfect little springboard into these issues. It even includes lists for further reading for each chapter.

[Kaiulani Anderson-Andrei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book taught me that I know some things, but clearly not everything.

[Chuck Clenney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a zine+ about food-related declassified US government information. Lots of interesting superficial discussion of food and how it relates to historical American tyranny, i.e. Castro's poisoned milkshake attempts, the Rosenbergs' Jello Box, arresting Fred Hampton for robbing an ice cream truck. An interesting and quick read, would recommend Shock Doctrine for anyone who wants to go further into depth.