"Ramen is a story about labor, occupation, and identity — not just noodles. Once you see that, you can't eat a bowl the same way again."
— George Solt, NYU Faculty
About George
George Solt is an NYU historian whose research turned a bowl of noodle soup into a lens for understanding 20th-century geopolitics. His book The Untold History of Ramen: How Political Crisis in Japan Spawned a Global Food Craze (University of California Press, 2014) traces ramen's rise from working-class street food to global cultural icon — and in doing so, reveals how U.S. occupation policy, Cold War labor economics, and Japan's post-bubble identity politics each left their mark on what the world now eats for lunch. Solt's work draws on declassified U.S. government documents and a wide range of Japanese primary sources, demonstrating that food history, done rigorously, is indistinguishable from political history. The book has been cited in national food media including MEL Magazine and has made Solt one of the most-quoted academics on the subject of ramen's cultural origins.