Reviews of ‘Feeding the People in Wartime Britain’
‘The book’s strength is in illustrating the fragility of welfare policies that are available to the population as a whole in the face of commercial interest groups.’
‘This book’s strength is in its analysis of a wide range of regional papers and local archives, creating a nuanced portrayal of the complex local factors that determined the development of public feeding.’
‘The book draws attention to the centrality of women to the development of communal feeding … women are often portrayed as consumers rather than organisers. Instead, the book traces the origins of the model to the initiative of working-class women.’
Dr Tali Kot-Ofek, University of York
‘Bryce Evans unique exploration of the history of emergency feeding in wartime Britain is a great addition to the field, successfully providing new material, a new perspective, and new knowledge on a subject that deserves all our attention.’
Dr Natacha Chevalier, University of Sussex
”Bryce Evans adeptly showcases the political, social, and cultural aspects of establishing public food policy in times of crisis.’
Professor Matthew Smith, University of Strathclyde
Reviews of ‘Food and Aviation in the Twentieth Century: the Pan American Ideal’:
“A fascinating history … This new book charts the unexpected significance of in-flight meals; yes, flight attendants used to reheat Michelin-starred coq-au-vin, but there is a more significant narrative running through the book. The postwar period saw the US rise to global predominance, an age of globalisation, of an identikit Western culture. It was the ‘American century’, and, as Evans shows, Pan Am was crucial in its development”
The Telegraph
“Feeling nostalgic for airplane food? Bryce Evans has just written the book on it. A scholarly yet fun romp through decades of aviation, culinary and luxury history”
Forbes Magazine
“What really went on behind the scenes at the most glamorous airline of the Golden Age … as the world craves an escape from reality, this new book transports wanderlust travellers back to the fabulous Golden Age of air travel”
Tatler
“This book is a wonderful addition to airline literature. By focusing on food aboard the world’s one-time premier airline, Pan American World Airways, Bryce Evans serves up a crucial portrait of one of the major players in the development of America’s empire.”
Christine R. Yano, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii
“inclusive in its coverage of the cultural, social, political and economic aspects of Pan Am’s food service, while certainly not lacking in its gendered analysis of dining experiences … the strengths of a book that will undoubtedly be useful for historians of technology, as well as food studies scholars.”
Shayan Lallani, Technology and Culture 62, 4 (2021), 1293-1294.
“This book tells the story of how Pan Am collaborated with French chefs … if you want to know more about the ‘sandwich war’ between Pan Am and SAS [read this book]”
Seattle Times
“So much for the golden age of air travel! This book lays bare the fascinating lives of air hostesses who worked on board American airline Pan Am … Dr Evans reveals how stewardesses were subjected to regular weight checks, hired and fired based on their appearance and denied work if they were mothers … there’s more to the so-called golden age of air travel than you might expect!”
Daily Mail
“The dark side of the glamorous airline finally revealed … the airline’s stringent beauty standards meant you could even lose your job over something as simple as gaining a little bit of weight.”
Daily Express
“Having had the pleasure of reading this, I would recommend anyone interested in food, aviation or technology to do the same.”
Professor Matthew Smith, University of Strathclyde
‘Awesome!’
Professor James Stark, Director, Leeds Arts and Humanities Institute, University of Leeds
‘Evans’s argument is a convincing one … what this volume does best is to show how Pan Am’s tentacles infiltrated multiple aspects of food culture … Pan Am’s vision of transnationalism inflected with Americanness is what has given its interpretation of airline food such longevity in the American public memory. This is Evans’s greatest triumph … [the book is] a useful text for historians of technology, cultural historians of travel, and food studies scholars’
Dr Blair Stein, Clarkson University
“There is almost no academic work on airline food. Bryce Evans fills this gap and makes clear that this is a rich topic for further study. Evans mines the collections at the University of Miami as well as other archival sources and interviews with crew members.”
Chloe Shields, Global Food History
“Evans demonstrates how Pan Am advanced an elitist and imperialist definition of modernity, revealing the flaws of this ideal.” Technology and Culture
“Written in an accessible style, this is a useful work for academics coming from diverse fields and ordinary readers alike.” Rénald Fortier, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Érudit
“This is a significant study in the growing field of twentieth century aerial culture and flying, and is required reading for those interested in this field.” Prof Waqar Zaidi, Lahore University, Pakistan, Journal of Transport History
Reviews of Bryce Evans’ The Greatest Famine Film Never Made, a long essay on the famed author Liam O’Flaherty’s relationship with the acclaimed film director John Ford (Published 2018 & 2019)
Ryan Tubridy, RTE Radio 1, June 2018: “a ‘must read’; I had no idea’ about this episode in history until reading the article.”
Donald Clarke, Irish Times, February 2019: “An informative piece”
Joe Culley, Irish Times, March 2019: “A terrific essay”
Tom Dunne, Irish Arts Review, June 2019: ‘A lively essay’
“analyzes a moment of aporia in representation and demonstrates the work that multimedia productions could do to bridge gaps of representation” New Hibernia Review 23, 4 (2019)
Media coverage of Bryce Evans’ ‘A Different Shade of Green’, nominated Irish Sports Book of the Year 2014:
Irish Mail on Sunday, 14 Dec 2014: “McLoughlin’s memoir – written with the superb historian, Dr Bryce Evans – is about growing up feeling utterly Irish in an Irish family in Britain. Overlooked amid the hype surrounding memoirs by Brian O’Driscoll and Roy Keane, this is my favourite book of the year: a book by an Irishman born in Manchester but proud and certain of his identity.”
Sunday Times, 7 Dec 2014: ‘a real gem … a book of real substance and insight’
Irish Times, 13 Dec 2014: ‘a flinty account of the former Ireland player’s career, the most interesting parts of which deal better with issues of nationality than the usual clumsy attempts’
‘Sharply told … the book contains a level of poignancy that’s seldom associated with sports autobiographies, particularly in its sensitive, brutally honest and insightful reflections on the impact that cancer can have on a person.’ (Journal.ie)
‘Brilliantly frank and interesting’; ‘ridiculously entertaining’ (balls.ie)
‘A must-read tale’ (SkySports)
http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/article/macca-book-up-for-award-2054245.aspx
http://www.ybig.ie/forum/new-alan-mcloughlin-book-release_topic50278.html
Reviews of Bryce Evans’ Frank Aiken biography:
An Phoblacht review of Frank Aiken book (page 28): http://t.co/XlVhqRBvYZ http://t.co/oyipONsDf4
http://www.theirishstory.com/2014/08/05/book-review-frank-aiken-nationalist-and-internationalist/
Writing in the Irish Examiner in May 2014, T Ryle Dwyer said that the new Frank Aiken biography was ‘provocative’, ‘magnificently researched’ and a ‘valuable contribution to our understanding [of Aiken]’
Featured in the Irish News, 28 August 2014
Coverage for Bryce Evans’ ‘Ireland during the Second World War: Farewell to Plato’s Cave’
Irish Times review July ’14 featured on blog homepage
‘The brilliant historian Bryce Evans’ Fintan O’Toole
Reviewing the book in the Sunday Business Post, playwright, novelist and poet Dermot Bolger wrote:
‘For historians, magpie novelists and anyone interested in Irish life at this time, Evans’ book is an informative and often captivating read’
‘There’s a wonderful story here of a male smuggler arrested in Crossmaglen in 1942, clad in a shawl and skirt and unmasked only by the graceful ease with which he transported an eight stone sack of flour, wrapped like a fox fur around his neck … if previous accounts of the period were often about regulations and censorship, Evans’ book describes how, in their daily lives, people tried to circumnavigate such rules and strictures’
Andy Bielenberg, reviewing the book for the Irish Times (July 12, 2014) writes that ‘the book opens up important vistas in terms of the subaltern experience of the Emergency … Evans writes well and this book will reach a wide audience and increase interest and research… [it] makes a convincing case that the war was the high water mark, after independence, of centralised state intervention in the economic sphere.’
‘Fascinating … Especially the material on smuggling’ Robert Fisk, author, journalist
‘Interesting and thought-provoking’ Bruce Arnold, veteran journalist
‘Stimulating … Fascinating … based on extensive archival research’ Prof Brian Girvin, University of Glasgow
Featured in the Irish Post, 11 January 2014
And RTE Radio One, 19 January 2014
Review in Irish Examiner: http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/books/ireland-couldnt-stomach-war-so-it-went-hungry-at-home-296685.html#.VPTl9TZIbYE.twitter Also featured in the Irish Sun, 06 September 2014:
‘World War Brew’: a tabloid take on research in the book on the role of Guinness in WW2
My biography of former Irish Taoiseach Seán Lemass (1899-1971) received complimentary reviews in every national newspaper in Ireland
The Irish Times, 12/07/14 called the book ‘the best biography yet written’ on its subject.
The most recent full review was penned by Professor Henry Patterson of Queen’s University Belfast in Irish Economic and Social History. Patterson called it ‘an excellent study’ which ‘challenges conventional wisdom’ and ‘a must-read for future researchers’.
Professor Ronan Fanning in the periodical Studies (November 2012). Prof Fanning called the book ‘refreshingly honest’, ‘shrewd’ and ‘determined not to succumb to the fashion of treating the sixties as a golden age where the Celtic Tiger may be discerned in embryo’.
Praise for ‘Seán Lemass: Democratic Dictator’ by Bryce Evans
“a welcome addition to the canon’ Irish Times
‘washes all other Lemass biographies into the sea’ Irish Independent
‘a complex portrait of a man at once ruthless and pragmatic’Dermot Bolger, Sunday Business Post
‘a fresh and interesting look at Lemass’, Books Ireland
‘Evans’s Democratic Dictator reminds us of the measures the state can resort to during a national emergency’, Diarmaid Ferriter, RTE Radio 1, 20 March 2020
Here is a selection of other comments on the work.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/1001/1224305062390.html
http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/books/the-root-of-fianna-fail-cronyism-178628.html
Other reviews / coverage:
Sunday Times, 2 october 2011
Irish Independent, 1 october 2011
Sunday Independent, 18 september 2011
Sunday Times, 18 September 2011
Roscommon Herald, 6 september 2011
Nenagh Guardian, 3 September 2011
Westmeath Examiner, 3 September 2011
Sunday Independent, 28 August 2011
Irish Independent, 17 August 2011
Ireland’s Own, 7 October 2011
Cuisle, Winter 2011
Radio and TV:
Newstalk, Talking History, 9 August 2011
TV3, Tonight with Vincent Browne, 5 September 2011
WDAR 96FM, 16 September 2011
LMFM, Daire Nelson Show, 15 September 2011
South East Radio, Morning Mix, 14 September 2011
Clare FM, Morning Focus, 6 September 2011
East Coast FM, The Morning Show, 5 September 2011
Ocean FM, North West Today, 1 September 2011
Sunshine 106.8FM, Dublin’s Talking, 29 August 2011
drbryceevans 