Customer Reviews

Sugar

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Not been an historian or academic type, I am thoroughly satisfied with the way this author has presented her researches into the interesting history of sugar. From its humble beginning as a grass in the plains of New Guinea ten thousand years ago, to the building of nations, transiting through its modes of manufacturing, O'Connell gives us a travelogue of the trail and travails of sugar and its impact on human history, our current history, as no other author I have read on the subject of foodstuffs has. (I once had to return a book on the history of the potato due to its starchy style.) If, like me, you are hungry for knowledge and enjoy storytelling, this is a book you most definitely need to buy. And, who knows, it may put you off manufactured sugar and its derivatives altogether! Which is not a bad thing given that we humans do not need it in order to survive. Want to know more? Read the book.

While I consider the subject matter of O'Connell's book is very interesting, her writing is uninspired and the academic honesty of the book is highly questionable. The book is readable, but could have used a hefty dose of editing before being printed. There are a number of places where O'Connell's meanings are unclear at best, and even occasionally uninteligible. She does not cite any of the information presented in the book, even direct quotes. She uses frequent long quotes to describe what she's discussing, but they're taken verbatim from other works. For example, many of the long quotes she uses to explain her points are exactly the same as those that Mintz uses in his 1985 book Sweetness and Power. Having just finished reading Mintz's work before starting O'Connell's, I can even say that many of her "paraphrased" descriptions are probably not paraphrased enough. I found myself frequently wondering how honest the author was in her writing. At the very least, her arguments are unoriginal. I would not recommend purchasing this book. I feel that O'Connell intended it for mass consumption at the lowest common denominator, and the writing style reflects that. If this is a topic that you find interesting, it would be better to check out other sugar classics, such as Mintz's work.