7.05.15: Celebrating the American Legacy

Historians often interpret the Civil War in terms of important battles, and number of lives lost. But what about  food? Today, we explore a history of the war through the lens of a cookbook. Then, a man who decided to do what nobody has done in more than a century ... cross the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon. Finally, the 4th of July marks the annual Mountain Men Revival in Pinedale, Wyoming. There, dozens of rugged-looking men wearing animal skins shake off the yoke of civilization, tether their horses to trees, make camp, and join others over grilled buffalo meat.

Listen to the full show. 

Helen Zoe Veit is the editor of Food In The Civil War Era: The South, and she joined us to talk about what food can reveal about the people and cultures it feeds.

You can find a link to a delicious mock apple pie recipehere!

Journalist and author Rinker Buck did what no one else had done in more than a century: cross the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon. He talked with us about his new book, The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, part history, part travelogue, and part family memoir.

Eric Mennel gives us a history of the Pony Express ... which, as it turns out, wasn't incredibly successful, and only lasted for a year and a half.

You can listen to the story again at PRX.org.

David Burnettauthored “Photographing the Revival of the American Mountain Man”for National Geographic. He spent two years among members of the American Mountain Men, documenting a group bent on preserving the art of survival, self-reliance, and a way of life long since passed.