Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern HistoryA 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 |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 33
Page 109
... Chocolate was commonly ( though not invariably ) used as a food flavoring or sauce without sweetener in its original tropical American home.83 Though it is possible to date the first appearance of coffee , tea , and chocolate in Britain ...
... Chocolate was commonly ( though not invariably ) used as a food flavoring or sauce without sweetener in its original tropical American home.83 Though it is possible to date the first appearance of coffee , tea , and chocolate in Britain ...
Page 114
... chocolate , the production of tea was developed energetically in a single vast colony , and served there as a means not only of profit but also of the power to rule . The same could not really be said of chocolate or coffee at the time ...
... chocolate , the production of tea was developed energetically in a single vast colony , and served there as a means not only of profit but also of the power to rule . The same could not really be said of chocolate or coffee at the time ...
Page 137
... chocolate helped to encourage the sharp upward curve of sucrose consumption . It seems improb- able that they were essential to it , but there is no doubt that they accelerated it . Tea , coffee , and chocolate never displaced alcoholic ...
... chocolate helped to encourage the sharp upward curve of sucrose consumption . It seems improb- able that they were essential to it , but there is no doubt that they accelerated it . Tea , coffee , and chocolate never displaced alcoholic ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Africa agricultural anthropology Arab Barbados became become Bemba beverages bitter bread Britain British British West Indies calories candy capitalism capitalist carbohydrates Caribbean changes chocolate classes coffee colonies commodities consumed consumption of sugar course cultural dessert drink Drummond and Wilbraham early eaten eating economic eighteenth century England English cuisine Europe European figures French fruit habits history of sugar honey human Ibid important increase islands Jamaica Jeronymites juice labor labor power less liquid London luxury meal meanings meat medicine mill modern molasses nation nineteenth century nutrition per-capita plantation planters poor pounds price of sugar probably proletarian puddings Puerto Rico quantities refined rich seventeenth century sixteenth century slave slavery social society spice substances sucrose sugar cane sugar consumption sugar industry sugar production sumption sweet sweetened syrup taste tea and sugar tobacco trade transformed treacle tropical United Kingdom West Indian Wilbraham 1958