Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction A Tale of Two Tacos
Part I Proto-Tacos
Chapter 1. Maize and the Making of Mexico
Chapter 2. Burritos in the Borderlands

Part II National Tacos
Chapter 3. From the Pastry War to Parisian Mole
Chapter 4. The Rise and Fall of the Chili Queens
Chapter 5. Inventing the Mexican American Taco

Part III Global Tacos
Chapter 6. The First Wave of Global Mexican
Chapter 7. The Blue Corn Bonanza
Conclusion The Battle of the Taco Trucks

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Jeffrey M. Pilcher is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Que vivan los tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity; The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise, and Meat in Mexico City; and Food in World History. He also edited the Oxford Handbook of Food History.

Reviews

"For those willing to sign on for the ride, it's a fascinating gold mine of information DS thoughtfully explained, usefully organized, and thoroughly documented. Eating a taco is eating history, indeed." --MM Pack, The Austin Chronicle
"Pilcher's proper emphasis on regional cuisines enables him to rescue the Tex-Mex taco from those elite Mexicans (often based in Mexico City) who reject it as a commercial invention: in fact, Tex-Mex cooking evolved organically in the border region, combining North American ingredients with Mexican sensibilities. Viewing food as a force of history, Pilcher imagines that 'the thin edge of a taco may one day help bring down the militarized border.'" --Foreign
Affairs
"Many of Pilcher's anecdotes are entertaining and informative...folks looking to supplement their favorite meal with some food for thought need look no further." --Publishers Weekly
"A browser might take Planet Taco for another 'follow that food' tale .Yet this book is far more ambitious, tracing the growth, emergence and spread of an entire national cuisine. Jeffrey Pilcher uses the lowly taco as an emblem of both the complex origins of Mexican food, and its eventual global expansion .All of these delicious bits and pieces are held together by a narrative sweep that emphasizes mixture, controversy, constant class struggle, and
the global forces of colonialism and capitalism."--Times Literary Supplement
"[Pilcher] manages to capture the essence of the demand of this very special food within America's borders. The narrative is lively and convincing, and he manages to include even a few recipes and inspiring photographs that encapsulate the history of something special within US borders. Pilcher's ability to tell a good story while showcasing some of the problems with 'Yankee ingenuity transforming Mexican culture' within the US raises both an appreciation for
the consumption and understanding of Mexican fare, but also of the nature of globalisation and the long arm of American business."--American Review
"A magisterial history of cuisine in greater Mexico from the domestication of maize to the present and includes detailed discussions of how food has historically functioned as a marker of social and regional distinctions . Planet Taco will be widely read, and deservedly so, because it complicates seemingly familiar historical categories--nation, ethnicity, and culture, among others-- through a culinary idiom that his readers already think they
understand." --Hispanic American Historical Review
"A pleasure to read Planet Taco celebrates Mexican cuisine as an exemplar of global food culture today - a complex product of historical contingency, the search for meaning, and economic constraints. The unique history of Mexican food reminds us that these elements shape our lives in profound ways wherever we live-and whether we take our chili red or green."--New Global Studies
"This book reveals that the struggle for Mexican culinary authenticity is not merely one between American transnational food corporations and Mexicans, but has taken place for over two centuries in many arenas--between creoles and indigenous groups during the post-colonial era; Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in the United States; and between Mexican regions and cosmopolitan elites in the capital."--Food, Culture & Society
"Rich, exceptionally well written, and thoroughly researched The study's particular strength is the way Pilcher grounds a cultural history of Mexican cuisine in a detailed understanding of shifting immigration policy, changes in industrial technology, Cold War foreign policy and the Green Revolution, and social change in twentieth-century Mexico and the United States."--Review 31
"Meticulously researched and comprehensive Pilcher's concluding chapter provides a masterful analysis of the elements that shape and impinge upon the quest for food authenticity in general." --CHOICE
"As a work designed for a broad audience, the book is accessible, written concisely and at times rather humorously As such, the book would be useful in undergraduate classes of all levels, whether in Latin American or world history. At the graduate level, Planet Taco would be helpful in world history seminars that include Mexico among the topics. Beyond the historical argument, which is an expansion of the work Pilcher began many years ago, this book
is quite informative and enjoyable to read."--H-World
"Impressively well-informed and sprightly .Pilcher takes us through the many permutations of Mexican cuisine with a sure hand."--Journal of Latin American Studies
"This synthesis not only shifts our understanding of Mexican food's global story, but also offers a number of fascinating case studies that lend insight into Mexican food and globalization. The book, though a serious history of Mexican cuisine of interest to specialists, will surely appeal to a general audience as well .Pinning down an authentic Mexican food, as Pilcher shows, may be an unwinning wrestling match."--History: A Review of New Books

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