Sweetness and Power
The Place of Sugar in Modern History

As a commodity history this is somewhat dated, and as other GR reviewers have noted, in need of tighter editing, both stylistically and structurally. Remarkably uneven in quality. The last two chapters are problematic, IMO - far too much space has been devoted to theory, defending the earlier histor......more

There was a dish of oysters sprinkled with sugar that was known as “Oyster in gravy Bastard”. Isn’t that the best name for a meal? “Hi Mum! What’s for dinner?” “Oyster in gravy Bastard.” “My favourite!” “And for you, sir?” “I’ll have the oyster in gravy Bastard. With a green salad.” “Very good sir.” This......more

This was a gift that I initially expected to be a popular pop-history similar to Kurlansky's Salt. It turns out I misjudged it -- this is an older and more academic book, a quality that comes with both positives and negatives. Speaking positively, Mintz (who sadly seems never to have written specifi......more

This is an excellent example of what might be called a micro history, in this case that of a single commodity, sugar, and its impact on historical developments over the last five hundred years. In the process of telling the story of sugar, Sidney Mintz masterfully draws in the biology and cultivatio......more

Sidney Mintz's "Sweetness and Power" is a global history by an anthropologist, so lay readers may find parts of it a little hard to get into, and even historians may have some issues with the way he structures his argument. Adopting a global approach was a necessity - there is no way to tell the sto......more