The American Diner: A History (Online)
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling books Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods and Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of food as a way to access the stories of diverse Americans. Endangered Eating was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon’s Editors, Food & Wine, and Adam Gopnik on the Milk Street podcast. It was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship and winner of the Ohioana Library Book Prize for Nonfiction. Lohman’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and NPR. Lohman has lectured across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California
From the Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks to the sitcom Seinfeld, diners are an intrinsic part of American pop culture. And it’s likely you have a diner that’s special to you: whether it’s a 24-hour spot where you drank coffee and smoked cigarettes as a teen, or a corner diner where you stopped for breakfast at the end of long night shift.
But where did these chrome and neon, 24-hour establishments originate? We’re going to trace diner dining from “Nite Owl” wagons in the late 19th century to “Have a Nice Day” take out cups – and talk about how diner culture might disappear.
