Jonathan Rees is Professor of History at Colorado State University - Pueblo, USA. He is the author of four books, including of Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America (2013) and Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life: A Brief Introduction (2012).
Does life exist without refrigerators? For most of us, the answer is no. How this common kitchen appliance achieved its indispensable status in less than a century is an amazing tale filled with surprising twists and unexpected connections. Refrigerator is a delight to read. Bravo! Andrew F. Smith, Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America Allow Jonathan Rees to re-introduce you to the most underappreciated appliance in your kitchen: the refrigerator. Despite its recent and as yet patchy arrival on the world stage, the humble fridge has transformed how and what we eat, for better and for worse. This concise overview should be required reading for the 99.5 percent of Americans who own a refrigerator. Nicola Twilley, author of Edible Geography and contributing writer at The New Yorker Jonathan Rees's Refrigerator offers a meticulously observed history of the 'cold chain' of industrialized food webs, explains how refrigeration works; and goes so far as to imagine life with and without it. Beyond this mini-historical account, the real heft to this title lies in the implied ecological impact of what doing without refrigeration might mean for those in the West for whom it has become taken for granted. -- Julian Yates Los Angeles Review of Books