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Sweetness and Power

The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Sidney W Mintz author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:5th Aug '86

Should be back in stock very soon

Sweetness and Power cover

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

"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

ISBN: 9780140092332

Dimensions: 196mm x 130mm x 20mm

Weight: 249g

320 pages