Cheese: the Making of a Wisconsin Tradition is an example of what is both good and bad with history writing. On the good side, it’s pretty well-researched and lots of good factual info; on the bad, it’s kind of dry and there’s very little narrative continuity.
The opening section is an introduction to the subject, meaning some technical definitions, the author’s personal interest, and brief historical overview. The history starts with farmers settling the areas now called Wisconsin and home-cheesemaking. The transition to dairy farming and cheesemaking in particular from home or town-based and from wheat, through roughly 1800-now-ish is told in terms of innovations and changes for the most part. Changes in technology from silos to breeding cows to refrigeration to tanker trucks all play a part in both the state’s reputation with cheese and dairy, and actual highs and lows in production. After that state history, there’s some content on grading, processing and distributing, specific factory histories, specialty cheeses, cheese-related organizations, and a couple of other sections.
There’s also an appendix for cheese museums and factory tours, a notes section which is really just citations, and then the bibliography and index. Scattered throughout are the occasional picture, both older and new (is- sepia/ black-white or full color).
I went to school in Wisconsin, and I still have family there; I know the state. I like cheese. This book was interesting but not the best read. It’s hard to stay interested without some kind of story or more personal or interesting narration or overall narrative. IT feels like a lot of small bits that are about the same subject kind of strung together. There’s quite a few times where a story starts, but then it just stops, and moves on to something else entirely. Even if the information might be incomplete, as in there aren’t records of how things went next, then maybe you say that instead of sounding like you’re just cutting off a story that might have more to it.
To be fair, everything is pretty understandable for a non-expert, there’s plenty of information but not too much jargon, but I still miss a little interest or personality to the content.
