Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$15.04$15.04
FREE delivery: Tuesday, April 23 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $10.96
Other Sellers on Amazon
FREE Shipping
100% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
92% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History Paperback – August 5, 1986
Purchase options and add-ons
In this eye-opening study, Sidney Mintz shows how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life, and how it changed the history of capitalism and industry. He discusses the production and consumption of sugar, and reveals how closely interwoven are sugar's origins as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies with is use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat. Finally, he considers how sugar has altered work patterns, eating habits, and our diet in modern times.
"Like sugar, Mintz is persuasive, and his detailed history is a real treat." -San Francisco Chronicle
- Print length274 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateAugust 5, 1986
- Dimensions7.76 x 5.08 x 0.76 inches
- ISBN-100140092331
- ISBN-13978-0140092332
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Like sugar, Mintz is persuasive, and his detailed history is a real treat." -San Francisco Chronicle
"A fine book. It not only tells a fascinating story, it is also something of an antidote to the static quality of much anthropological writing." -Jack Goody, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 5, 1986)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 274 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140092331
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140092332
- Item Weight : 8.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 7.76 x 5.08 x 0.76 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #66,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #30 in Customs & Traditions Social Sciences
- #72 in Food Science (Books)
- #163 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Sidney W. Mintz is professor emeritus, department of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. He founded the department there in 1975. He has done extensive field research in Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as in Iran. He launched a research program in Hong Kong to study the consumption and production of soybean and examine soy products in the United States.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
My greatest insight from this book derives from the above understanding that the increasing use of sugar in the diets of "modernized" people reflects upon its ability to provide calories (thus energy) at a cheap price, in a product with "shelf-life" that allows people to focus on their work (for their employers) for eight or more hours per day.
I might add that this book was a great "warm-up" read before I began the two volume set: The Invention of the White Race, by Theodore Allen.
A great historical and political survey of its hidden importance and huge influence in different societies
thank you
Top reviews from other countries
The scope of Mintz's research is remarkable, but it's his insights into how an everyday commodity can reveal the deep workings of history that makes this book such a classic.











