Customer Reviews

TASTES OF PARADISE

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This just had to be a subject right up my alley. Spices? I live in Texas where Tabasco is a condiment (and not a spice) and jalapenos are considered vegetables. Stimulants? I have a coffee cup surgically attached to my hand and Brazilian music runs constantly through my head. Intoxicants? I worship beer. What could be better than a book about all three subjects?

Tastes of Paradise considers the social use of and social importance of spices, stimulants, and intoxicants largely from a Western point of view. It covers the use of spices, the coffee-related ethic of the middle class, chocolate, the rise of smoking and snuff, alchohol and the industrial revolution, and the rituals and places surrounding our drinking. What more could we talk about?

Turns out there's a lot more we could talk about, and what would be better is a book that really covers all three subjects. My disappointment boils down to three basic complaints against the book. The first is by far the broadest. In including "a social history" in the title, Schivelbusch focuses almost exclusively on the social effect of the use of the particular stimulant or intoxicant. Nowhere does he discuss the broader history of the item or the impact of the item on society (read "The True History of Chocolate" for a broader and more thorough presentation on chocolate, for example). My second complaint regards his treatment of specific subjects. Spices get remarkably short shrift (twelve pages total; less space than the discussion of drinking rituals; "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" is a better presentation on spices as a whole), and tea is only considered from the point of view of England (I'm pretty sure that the Chinese and Japanese drank tea, and that there's some social history there). Finally, there are more illustrations in this book than in most elementary school readers.

The book is immensely readable, does include -some- interesting illustrations, and covers admirably the impact on western society of the most popular stimulants and intoxicants from the 1600's to the late 1800's. However, there's an enormous amount that isn't there (except for the extra illustrations; those are presented wholesale), and in that the book disappoints.

Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise provides a refreshingly light-hearted, yet engaging glimpse at some of the substances which, through our stomachs, lungs, and palates, have played a not insignificant role in personal and cultural interactions of European civilizations. Concentrating primarily on western societies between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Schivelbusch devotes over 50 pages to each of the subjects of coffee, tobacco, and alcohol; he also includes ample discussion of the historical role of chocolate, spices, and nineteenth-century opiates. I read this book as part of a college-level World History class (middle ages- present) and found it to be an enjoyable and worthwhile complement to novels, primary sources, and textbook readings we studied. Spread out in small doses over the course of the semester, it provided an unusual vantage point from which major themes such as Industrialism, Christianity, Romanticism, and social class structures could be more readily understood. Over 100 black-and-white reproductions of period art enhance Schivelbusch's lively discussion of the material. Without suggesting that these substances played an unrealistically inflated role in history, Schivelbusch offers a highly accessible discussion equally suitable for the student or casual reader.

I must beg to differ with my fellow reviewers about

the merits of this book. I do agree that the treatment

of individual spices is cursory and that the lack of

an index is a disappointment. What I find to praise

here is perhaps the very thing that others find to blame.

Schivelbusch has a point of view that is rooted in

wanting to discover the attitudes, behavior and beliefs

that underlay the European fascination with spicing foods.

He offers a coherent theory-a combination of exoticism and

social climbing. Then examines the consequences of this

fascination in art, literature and society at large.

So this is not an encyclopedia or even a particularly

good guide to sources. Some of that can be better found

in drier accounts like Andrew Dalby's DANGEROUS TASTES.

TASTES OF PARADISE is an accessible and interesting

account of the place that spices, stimulants and intoxicants

have in our world. It is a brisk chronicle of what we have

done with them and what they have done to us, and as that

I recommend it hightly.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and

the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN 9781601640005

I enjoyed this book. It is well written and interesting and I learned quite a bit. The reason I only gave it 3 stars is that the book is too short. There are sections where you wish Mr. Schivelbusch had fleshed things out a bit. The book has many interesting illustrations but in a 228 page book over 100 pages of illustrations are just too much! So, be forewarned! If you are looking for some depth to sink your teeth into this is not the book for you. However, if you are satisfied by small portions than by all means.....Bon Appetit!

This book is so easy to read that you might not believe
it's written by a serious German sociologist.
Especially given our current coffee craze, it's fascinating
to see when different stimulants (coffee, tea, chocolate, etc.)
came into popularity in history.
For example, before the 17th century, all they drank in England
was coffee. Then strangely, they totally switched to tea and
there doesn't appear to be any logical explanation.
But, to sum up, this is actually a FUN sociology book.

And I see from the reviews below that I wasn't the only one. The author has really picked a fascinating subject, and brings it to life, weaving together strands of economics, sociology, geography, and chemistry to explain some of the impacts that these now-commonplace items have had on Western culture. (And what impacts our culture has had on the items - did you know that chocolate was a drink for monks and aristocrats before it became a snack for children?)

But the book is far too short. Many subjects are merely glanced over, and the illustrations, in addition to being so numerous as to be suspected of being filler, are often dark and hard to make out. I would have rather seen the author do a book this size on any one of the various subjects at hand - just coffee, say, or just pepper - and really explored it in depth.

I do not, in general, read history books - social or otherwise but I have been reading a variety of food-related history and culture books. From this context, I found Schivelbush's Tastes of Paradise to be "just right." He provides the broad framework within which he leads the reader through exploration of spices, beer, chocolate, tea, coffee, snuff, opium (and in an afterword, bottled water). Through the study of the place and manner of consumption, he shows some of the effects of these intoxicants on society as well as the effects of history on the use of these intoxicants.

Two points I found particularly of interest were how the fall of Spain as a world power led to hot chocolate's association with women and children. His brief description of opium as an agent of economic/political oppression also caught my attention. What I appreciated the most, however, was the use of art to substantiate his descriptions of place and manner of consumption. The art added a level of substantiation of his arguments that words could not supply.

True, as other reviewers have mentioned, this book does not cover the whole topic nor even treat all intoxicants with the same level of detail. However, he does provide an overview sufficient for many of us which serves well as a base for those who wish to explore further.

Product came way ahead of scheduled date. The packing was great and product was protected. Product exceeded expectations. I will recommend this company to friends and use them in the future. Friend is studying intoxicants and the history of them. She loved the book.

The premise of this book is that various substances when introduced into use have changed the society in which they were used.
The substances covered here, are Spices, Coffee (and to a small extent Tea), Cocoa, Liquor and some harder drugs. Additionally there was some mention of the importance ritual played in these substances. Drinking rituals could form a book of their own. I'm wondering if the substance has to be intoxicating, in order for people to create such elaborate rituals around it.

This is an easy read and provides some graphics that show how these digestives were incorporated into the art of the time. I'm not sure; given the print quality in a softcover book, that the pictures do them justice. However, I think there could be less pictures, as many were repetitive.

What struck me the most is that how these items played such a social role, in coffee houses and in defining social castes. Granted Coffee as a beverage enabled the drinker to remain sober (as opposed to the beer drinker), but it is amazing how such a connotation was put on what you digested. The Coffee drinker was considered Protestant and the Cocoa drinker often Catholic. In the times these were introduced that was an important distinction.
Also what was interesting, was the level of medical thinking at the time and how often substances were thought to provide mutually exclusive benefits, such as causing you to be more alert, but providing relaxation as well. I'm sure some addicted smokers could attest to that, but these values inevitably were considered for all these substances at one point in time.

I'm wondering in several years if a similar document were done, on processed sugar and fast food, which play such a part in our society today what the findings would be.

Good overview of the subject. Interesting tale from a sociological perspective. Excellent translation.