I hope you are approaching this as somewhat of a blank slate yourself. It makes the journey more fun. This book has scope. While it does not claim to cover all of America, it does a good job of incorporating food from every region and much of our history. The sidebars sold me on this book.
Most pages have historical material next to the recipes.
These are quotes and excerpts from primary source material. Cookbooks, food writing, historical figures, Junior League cookbooks. It is all there. My history loving husband who does not read cookbooks sat and read it for hours. I could not understand this until he directed me to these sidebars.