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
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Page 55
... economic form in the late eighteenth century and not before . But the rise of capitalism involved the de- struction of economic systems that had preceded it — notably , Eu- ropean feudalism — and the creation of a system of world trade ...
... economic form in the late eighteenth century and not before . But the rise of capitalism involved the de- struction of economic systems that had preceded it — notably , Eu- ropean feudalism — and the creation of a system of world trade ...
Page 66
... economic category of the highest importance.82 Hobsbawm has shown how increases in the consumption of sugar and like commodities were predicated upon a basic structural re- alignment of European economic activity . In his view , a ...
... economic category of the highest importance.82 Hobsbawm has shown how increases in the consumption of sugar and like commodities were predicated upon a basic structural re- alignment of European economic activity . In his view , a ...
Page 163
... economic historian Jan DeVries argues that two fea- tures of economic life — often attributed to so - called precapitalist or primitive economies - had to be radically modified to enlarge demand . First , more families ( or wage ...
... economic historian Jan DeVries argues that two fea- tures of economic life — often attributed to so - called precapitalist or primitive economies - had to be radically modified to enlarge demand . First , more families ( or wage ...
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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