Sugar, James Walvin
Sugar, James Walvin
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Sugar
The World Corrupted from Slavery to Obesity

Author: James Walvin

Narrator: Roger Davis

Unabridged: 10 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/03/2018


Synopsis

The modern successor to Sweetness and Power, James Walvin's Sugar is a rich and engaging work on a topic that continues to change our world.

How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic?

Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the domain of the rich. But with the rise of the sugar colonies in the New World over the following century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous and an everyday necessity. Less than fifty years ago, few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem. And yet today, sugar is regularly denounced as a dangerous addiction, on a par with tobacco. While sugar consumption remains higher than ever--in some countries as high as 100lbs per head per year--some advertisements even proudly proclaim that their product contains no sugar.

How did sugar grow from prize to pariah? Acclaimed historian James Walvin looks at the history of our collective sweet tooth, beginning with the sugar grown by enslaved people who had been uprooted and shipped vast distances to undertake the grueling labor on plantations. The combination of sugar and slavery would transform the tastes of the Western world.

Masterfully insightful and probing, James Walvin reveals the relationship between society and sweetness over the past two centuries--and how it explains our conflicted relationship with sugar today.

About James Walvin

James Walvin is professor of history emeritus at the University of York. He has published widely on modern social history and the history of slavery. He has held fellowships in Britain, the United States, Australia, and the Caribbean. In 2008 he was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to scholarship.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clare on July 09, 2022

This book about sugar is not really about sugar; it should be called, What we did with sugar. We get no botanical description, no analysis of the soil types needed, light levels, root depths, pests, colours of stems in different varieties, no pictures except on the book covers. The author is a histo......more

Goodreads review by Crystal on April 14, 2018

This is an incredible history of how the introduction of sugar has changed so much of our world. I was surprised to learn how little I knew about how this little ingredient came to be. Meticulously research, this book brings the reader from the 15th century up through the modern world, covering the......more

Goodreads review by Robbo on July 06, 2019

The history of sugar was fascinating, which covered around 2/3 of the book. The final 1/3 of the book could be summarized in two words: eat healthy.......more

Goodreads review by Rob on March 06, 2021

It's as though James Walvin had the makings of a very fit and trim article on his hands, but gave in to a literary compulsion to pack on the pages until it became the flabby and and obese book we have before us. There's an important story here, but Walvin, with his repetitive and rambling prose, onl......more

Goodreads review by Wei on November 20, 2019

It was a chore getting through this book. Not because the topic was uninteresting, but because of the clumsy writing (I mean, "...buying supportive scientific support." Really?), the circuitous points, the strange structure. Some factoids were so interesting, they are repeated several times like a b......more