Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

by Sidney W. Mintz

Overview

A fascinating persuasive history of how sugar has shaped the world, from European colonies to our modern diets

In this eye-opening study, Sidney Mintz shows how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life, and how it changed the history of capitalism and industry. He discusses the production and consumption of sugar, and reveals how closely interwoven are sugar's origins as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies with is use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat. Finally, he considers how sugar has altered work patterns, eating habits, and our diet in modern times.

"Like sugar, Mintz is persuasive, and his detailed history is a real treat." -San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140092332
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/05/1986
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	450,654
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sidney W. Mintz was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, where he taught anthropology. His academic specialization focused on the anthropology of food, with a particular focus on the consumption and commodification of sugar. His works include Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past; The World of Soy; and Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. He died in 2015.

Table of Contents

Sweetness and Power - Sidney W. Mintz Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Food, Sociality, and Sugar
2. Production
3. Consumption
4. Power
5. Eating and Being
Bibliography
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Shows how the intelligent analysis of the history of a single commodity can be used to pry open the history of an entire world of social relationships and human behavior." -The New York Review of Books

"Like sugar, Mintz is persuasive, and his detailed history is a real treat." -San Francisco Chronicle

"A fine book. It not only tells a fascinating story, it is also something of an antidote to the static quality of much anthropological writing." -Jack Goody, The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher