Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in …

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(as of May 09, 2025 10:11:01 UTC – Details)

How we keep food cold while the house stays warm.

Only when the power goes off and food spoils do we truly appreciate how much we rely on refrigerators and freezers. In Refrigeration Nation, Jonathan Rees explores the innovative methods and gadgets that Americans have invented to keep perishable food cold—from cutting river and lake ice and shipping it to consumers for use in their iceboxes to the development of electrically powered equipment that ushered in a new age of convenience and health.

As much a history of successful business practices as a history of technology, this book illustrates how refrigeration has changed the everyday lives of Americans and why it remains so important today. Beginning with the natural ice industry in 1806, Rees considers a variety of factors that drove the industry, including the point and product of consumption, issues of transportation, and technological advances. Rees also shows that how we obtain and preserve perishable food is related to our changing relationship with the natural world.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 15, 2016
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1421419866
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1421419862
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
Part of series ‏ : ‎ Studies in Industry and Society