A Dark History of Sugar

by Neil Buttery

Overview

A revealing history of our passion for sugar—and the medical, moral, environmental, and economic price we pay for it.
 
A Dark History of Sugar delves into our evolutionary history to explain why sugar is so loved, yet is the root cause of so many bad things. Europe’s colonial past and the British Empire were founded and fueled on sugar, as was the United States, the greatest superpower on the planet—and they all relied upon slave labor to produce it. As this book shows, the exploitation of the workers didn’t end with emancipation. It also reveals the detrimental impact of sugar’s meteoric popularity on the environment and our health, delving into our long relationship with this sweetest and most ancient of commodities.
 
Renowned food historian Neil Buttery takes a look at some of the lesser-known elements of the history of sugar, delving into the murky and mysterious aspects of its phenomenal rise from the first cultivation of the sugar cane plant in Papua New Guinea in 8000 BCE to its integral part of the cultural fabric of life in the West—at whatever cost. The dark history of sugar is one of exploitation: of slaves and workers, of the environment and of the consumer. Wars have been fought over it and it is responsible for what is potentially the planet’s greatest health crisis. And yet we cannot get enough of it, for sugar and sweetness has cast its spell over us all; it is comfort, and we reminisce fondly about the sweets, cakes, puddings, and fizzy drinks of our childhoods with dewy-eyed nostalgia. The very word “sweet” is used as a synonym for “good” and “innocent.” In this book Neil Buttery argues that sugar is nothing of the sort.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526783660
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	07/07/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	345,662
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Neil Buttery has been studying and writing about the history of British food for over a decade. He is also an experienced chef and restauranteur, recreating historical and traditional foods. This combination of academic study and practical cookery has led to appearances on Channel Four’s 'Britain’s Most Historic Towns' and Radio Four’s 'The Food Programme'. Most recently be became resident food historian in Channel 5’s 'The Wonderful World of Cakes'. His research and writing on the subject can be read on his long-running blogs British Food: A History and Neil Cooks Grigson and heard on his 'British Food: A History Podcast'.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Innocent Times 1

Chapter 2 Enter the White Man 13

Chapter 3 Pioneers of the New World: The Spanish and Portuguese Sugar Industry 21

Chapter 4 Life on the Sugar Colonies 34

Chapter 5 Making Sugar 53

Chapter 6 Fear of Freedom 65

Chapter 7 The Slave Trade 80

Chapter 8 Abolition and Aftermath 99

Chapter 9 Sugar States 118

Chapter 10 Sugar Takes Hold in Court 129

Chapter 11 Sugar for All 139

Chapter 12 The Rise of Junk Food 151

Chapter 13 Fifty Words for Sugar 168

Chapter 14 Legacy 175

Afterword: A Brighter Future? 188

Notes 192

Index 229