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Title: American Diner Then and Now by Richard J. S. Gutman ISBN: 0-8018-6536-0 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: Not a single menu photo or recipe graces the pages of this book. So little food info is included, in fact, that this book is just a dry recitation about the diner structures themselves, and the occasional interesting tidbit about the people who owned them. This leaves you hungry to know about the food they served. After all, the food is what diners were all about. If you want a diner history WITH menus and recipes, this is not the book for you.
Rating: 4
Summary: 4.9 stars
Comment: This is actually the third edition of this work. In 1979, Gutman took the plunge with the simply titled "American Diner" published in hardback by Harper & Row. Done in collaboration with Elliott Kaufman and David Slovic, it was shorter and more loosely organized than the later edition, but a nice and welcome diner book at a time when there still weren't many such books around. In 1993 Gutman came out with "American Diner, Then and Now" which sported revised and substantially enlarged text and better-integrated photos (the Kaufman photo portfolios had also been dropped). This revamped '93 version was a high-water mark for diner books, a now numerous field. With it's perfect balance between individual diner stories ("dinerlore"), photos, and history, and great attention to detail which bespeaks a real love of the subject, this has been an unofficial bible for diner afficionados for the last 7 years.
Now here is the 2000 edition, published in paperback by Johns Hopkins (apparently Barry Levinson's hometown has more interest in diners than the folks at Harper). This is basically just a reprint of the 1993 edition, with a different cover, a new introduction, and a few names added to the diner index at the end. While on the one hand it's great that this modern classic is available again (it had been out of print for several years) I had hoped that there would be some new material in it. To be sure, this book still teaches you how to tell a Paramount from a Mountain View, or a Fodero from a Worcester Lunch Car, and makes a fine gift (Christmas or otherwise) for someone who doesn't have the '93 edition. Nevertheless, at the risk of sounding like an ingrate, I would have to say I slightly prefer the '93 edition, mainly because the cover photo, an interior shot of a restored Worcester Lunch Car, with all that luscious wood, is more attractive than the rather bland shot of Ford's Diner that graces the cover of the 2000 edition. But make no mistake, if you don't have any diner books and are looking for a good one, this is THE one to get----and if you've already got five other diner books, you should still get this, as it has the clearest explication of American diner history you're ever likely to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Diner Bible
Comment: Gutman did it again - his updated study of Diners is the cornerstone of any roadside fan's book collection. If you only have room for one book on Diners, THIS IS THE BOOK. Lots of great pictures and stories from the early lunch wagons to the new super diners.
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Title: The American Diner by Michael Karl Witzel ISBN: 0760301107 Publisher: Motorbooks International Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Diners: People and Places by Gerd Kittel ISBN: 0500280819 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Diners: American Retro (American Retro) by Alison Moss ISBN: 1570715939 Publisher: Sourcebooks Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Retro Diner: Comfort Food from the American Roadside by Linda Everett ISBN: 1888054689 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Jersey Diners by Peter Genovese ISBN: 0813523508 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
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