The whiteness of the wheat

This collection of historical, autobiographical, and lyric essays traces the early history and expansion west of wheat in the Americas. It also considers the meaning of vocation, through the lens of the author's relationship with his father, a former baker. Both wheat and whiteness become metaphors for, among other things, colonization and monoculture; as the basis of bread, however, wheat also creates desire, provides sustenance and, through baking, offers the possibility of fulfilling work. Although the essays are mostly personal and historical, they also consider the place of wheat in American culture and draw parallels between ideas of racial purity and agricultural monocultures.