Press coverage:
American Pie: PW Talks with Rossi Anastopoulo - Publisher’s Weekly
Fall’s 10 Essential Food Reads - Eater
The Southerners’ Big Fall Reading List - Garden & Gun
Author Rossi Anastopoulo on her new book, "Sweet Land of Liberty" - NPR, All Things Considered
Opinion: This is the dessert that explains America - CNN
Footnotes: American Pie - New York Times
The Extremely American History of Pecan Pie - Slate
Whatever Happened to Pieing Powerful People in the Face? - Slate
The history of pie in America - TODAY’s Family Style with Al Roker
The Limitless Possibilities of Pie - Eater
Pumpkin Pie with Rossi Anastopoulo - Smart Mouth Podcast
The bittersweet origins of ‘American as apple pie’ - KCRW’s Good Food
The Ten Best Books About Food of 2022 - Smithsonian Magazine
Conversations: Rossi Anastopoulo, "Sweet Land of Liberty - A History of America in 11 Pies" - Kansas Public Radio
In 'Sweet Land of Liberty,' pie recipes show how American values transform over time - NPR’s Book of the Day
The Holiday 2022 Book Guide - Edible Inland Northwest
January 2023 Book Review | “Sweet Land of Liberty: the History of America in 11 Pies” - KPCW
Telling America’s History Through Pie (Yes, We Said Pie) - Off the Page
A delicious and delightful narrative history of pie in America, from the colonial era through the civil rights movement and beyond
From the pumpkin pie gracing the Thanksgiving table to the apple pie at the Fourth of July picnic, nearly every American shares a certain nostalgia for a simple circle of crust and filling. But America’s history with pie has not always been so sweet. After all, it was a slice of cherry pie at the Woolworth’s lunch counter on a cool February afternoon that helped to spark the Greensboro sit-ins and ignited a wave of anti-segregation protests across the South during the civil rights movement. Molasses pie, meanwhile, captures the legacies of racial trauma and oppression passed down from America's history of slavery, and Jell-O pie exemplifies the pressures and contradictions of gender roles in an evolving modern society. We all know the warm comfort of the so-called “All-American” apple pie . . . but just how did pie become the symbol of a nation?
In Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies, food writer Rossi Anastopoulo cracks open our relationship to pie with wit and good humor. For centuries, pie has been a malleable icon, co-opted for new social and political purposes. Here, Anastopoulo traces the pies woven into our history, following the evolution of our country across centuries of innovation and change. With corresponding recipes for each chapter and sidebars of quirky facts throughout, Sweet Land of Liberty is an entertaining, informative, and utterly charming food history for bakers, dessert lovers, and history aficionados alike. Ultimately, the story of pie is the story of America itself, and it’s time to dig in.
Literary or Historical Food Writing