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Sugar: A Global History (Edible) Hardcover – May 15, 2015

by Andrew F. Smith (Author)

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It’s no surprise that sugar has been on our minds for millennia. First cultivated in New Guinea around 8,000 B.C.E., this addictive sweetener has since come to dominate our appetites—whether in candy, desserts, soft drinks, or even pasta sauces—for better and for worse. In this book, Andrew F. Smith offers a fascinating history of this simultaneously beloved and reviled ingredient, holding its incredible value as a global commodity up against its darker legacies of slavery and widespread obesity.

As Smith demonstrates, sugar’s past is chockfull of determined adventurers: relentless sugar barons and plantation owners who worked alongside plant breeders, food processors, distributors, and politicians to build a business based on our cravings. Exploring both the sugarcane and sugar beet industries, he tells story after story of those who have made fortunes and those who have met demise all because of sugar’s simple but profound hold on our palates. Delightful and surprisingly action-packed, this book offers a layered and definitive tale of sugar and the many people who have been caught in its spell—from barons to slaves, from chefs to the countless among us born with that insatiable devil, the sweet tooth.

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Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson Paperback $5.50
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrew F. Smith teaches culinary history at the New School in New York. He is the author or editor of several books, including the Oxford Encyclopedia on Food and Drink in America, Hamburger: A Global History, Potato: A Global History, and Sugar: A Global History, the latter three also published by Reaktion Books.

Series: Edible
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Reaktion Books (May 15, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1780234341
ISBN-13: 978-1780234342
Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.8 x 7.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #851 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Herbs, Spices & Condiments
- #1763 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking Education & Reference > History
- #1862 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Celebrities & TV Shows

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Anne Lacombe

Read it, buy it an give copies to all your friends.

March 3, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Masterpiece of information. Great intelligence. You see the history of the world, and you see the creation of a commodity. And you see where sugar is today: many places where it should not be. Wonderful reading. You will want to give it to all your friends!

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Awesome, quick introduction to the history of sugar and ...

November 1, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Awesome, quick introduction to the history of sugar and how it relates to history of slavery and other things. Glad to have read it, it was very enlightening.

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Overall perhaps a more sour than sweet history (see Chapter 7) but an informative, largely historical book.

May 14, 2015

Format: Hardcover

This is typical of the series, brief, excellently illustrated, with solid writing and at the end, recipes, a time line and additional reading. I liked the book, but found some of the history a bit cursory. It gets better in later chapters.

Chapters 1 through 3 are a history from domestication through about 1900. The first written accounts are from northern India 2,500 years ago, with the region of domestication not agreed on. The sequence includes the migration of production to the Middle East, Egypt, Cyprus and the Mediterranean islands, the Atlantic islands and so on to the Caribbean and Brazil. The history is interesting but fast-paced. The usual problem is the lack of labor and so the crop has long had an association with compelled labor and slavery. Anyone reading this the first time will note the huge demographic effect of sugar, bringing African slaves to the New World, and accounting for the intricate ethnic mix of places like Hawai'i.

I found Chapter 4, a history of how sugar was used, to be the most interesting. Sugar was not only a sweetener but a medicine. There are mentions of sugar in English accounts as early as the 1200s. The most popular drink in the Middle Ages, says Smith, was Hippocras, a spiced wine than was originally made with honey but sugar replaced it. Sugar history merged with that of coffee, tea and chocolate, and is nicely covered in this chapter.

Chapter 5 is on candy and sweets, and includes, briefly, the origins of some of today's major manufacturers and brands. Chapter 6 focuses on the US and is an excellent discussion of the development of sugar-loaded processed foods and soft drinks. There's some interesting discussion of doughnuts. Chapter 7, "Sugar Blues," goes into the dental and dietary problems associated with sugar consumption, not just refined cane sugar but corn sugar and artificial sweeteners. Chapter 7 is the second best chapter.

The recipe section includes recipes from old texts, and is itself interesting.

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