Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Rating:
Summary: Read this Book, Then...
Review: FIGHT FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Professor Ignacio Chapela courageously spoke out
against the UC $25 million research agreement with
the biotechnology giant Novartis. He published an
article demonstrating that native corn in Mexico had
been contaminated by genetically engineered corn.
Being a prominent critic of the university's ties to
the biotech industry, Dr. Chapela had his tenure
denied despite overwhelming support by his peers at UC
Berkeley and experts around the world.

The implications that these actions have on academic
freedom are frightening. They threaten scientists in
the future from working to seek truth in different
forums without undue influence. Scientists will no
longer be able to ask questions that might seem
uncomfortable even for the university to pose, such as
those in pursuit of precautionary science or in
opposition to corporate control over the university
research agenda.

You can get involved:
1. Call, email or write the UC Berkeley Chancellor
Birgeneau and the Academic Senate.
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Snail Mail: Office of the Chancellor, 200 California
Hall # 1500, Berkeley, California, 94720-1500
(Academic Senate = PHONE: [phone]; FAX:
510-642-8920; E-MAIL: [e-mail]

2. Visit www.tenurejustice.org or write
[e-mail]




Rating:
Summary: Full of decadence and sweet intrigue
Review: Having read Mr. Mintz's 'Sweetness and Power,' I can but conclude that Mr Mintz is obviously knowledgable in the material, but lacks a small number of vital abilities with writing. His book seems to simply present information and data to support whatever thought he is currently on, almost as if the author is rambling. There seem to be no defining arguments in the book, but rather a number of smaller arguments which are hardly more than thoughts stimulated by research. In all, a defining book on the history of sugar and is startling effects on a global scale, but only for the veteran reader with excellent diction.

Rating:
Summary: Informative on the topic, but presented poorly...
Review: Having read Mr. Mintz's 'Sweetness and Power,' I can but conclude that Mr Mintz is obviously knowledgable in the material, but lacks a small number of vital abilities with writing. His book seems to simply present information and data to support whatever thought he is currently on, almost as if the author is rambling. There seem to be no defining arguments in the book, but rather a number of smaller arguments which are hardly more than thoughts stimulated by research. In all, a defining book on the history of sugar and is startling effects on a global scale, but only for the veteran reader with excellent diction.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating look at the history of sugar
Review: I bought this book simply out of curiousity, and it was marvelous! It really details the ways in which the sugar trade transformed and created the modern world -- I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in how markets act and how the history of substances we view as everyday. My one complaint is an overly long section tracing the rise in English sugar consumption, but the political and economic facts are tremendous.

Rating:
Summary: SUGAR....SUGAR.....SUGAR........
Review: I didn't find the book anyhow good. It was a plain, bad written, boring history of sugar. History of sugar, I mean, who cares? It did have one or two pages that made me hope in a turning point for the book, but then it feel again in its initial boredom. I really didn't like it!!

Rating:
Summary: Good case study on commodites and development
Review: I found this book very interesting as I read it for a development anthropology class. Mintz gives a detailed and informative history of the development of sugar as a commodity from the colonial age to the present. Coming from an anthropological point of view, he examines the cultural impact of sugar production on the Carribean nations that produce it. He also displays how British organization of the industry in their colonies created an increasing demand for sugar.

Rating:
Summary: Could have fooled me...
Review: I never would have believed that you could fill a 275 page book on such a seemingly mundane subject as...sugar. There is a lot of (interesting) history on the subject, but this book didn't really inspire me to respect sugar as anything more than what it is...um, sugar. It definitely explores every little tangent on the subject in colonial history...which might be a bad thing. It gets a little repetitive.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent anthrological perspective on history
Review: I read this book for an economic anthropology class. I thought it gave an excellent anthropological perspective on how sugar changed history. Mintz makes some striking points on the influence of slavery on the development of capitalism, as well as drawing a parallel between the sugar plantations in the Carribean and the capitalist, industrial factories that developed shortly after. The book is packed with historical information, overall a really informative read.

Rating:
Summary: How has sugar moved you
Review: Mintz carefully places implications that sugar has caused human nature and culture to change and the end of his work, after a brief overview of all that we have been doing with sugar or rather sugar has been doing with us for the past 1000 years. MintzÕs work is divided into 5 sections: Food, Sociality and Sugar; Production; Consumption; Power; and finally Eating and Being. Mintz really hopes to build a base of facts to reveal to us how we as a people have identified with and sought to consume sugar over the past 1000 years and how that has affected us.

Sugar is always a labor intensive project, from the mill, to the distillery, to the storehouse and all the laborers it takes to run these places. Mintz discusses how this need for labor caused the British to look to Africa and other places to find cheap or free labor. With sugar came slavery, and those slaves who did the plantation work generally worked in the Caribbean while the product they created was delivered to British aristocracy.

In the mid-1700Õs sugar is made cheaper and more accessible to the lower classes and at this point shifts in its purpose to sweeten food. And as outlined by the upper statistics, sugar only continues to grow in demand. It is interesting that because sugar started as something precious and hard to come by, when it later became more cheap and accessible to the working class it still seemed to uphold that Òrareness.Ó The working class felt like they were increasing in freedom and status as they started to consume sugar. Sugar and like products Òrepresented the growing freedom of ordinary folks,Ó yet did Sugar really mean freedom?

In analysis of MintzÕs thesis I am most convinced that sugar is a powerful force that has moved us historically and today. Sugar production has not only caused the physical relocation, its consumption has caused us to form class and psychological identity around it; today we still live with the power of sweetness in our everyday life, most of the time not giving it a second thought.
Sugar took slaves from Africa to the new world in America. It created identity in the aristocracy and later a manufactured sense of freedom among the working class. Today it continues to grow in its use across the world and has become an everyday commodity. The more fast paced life becomes in the 21st century, the more consumers are drawn to pre-prepared processed foods consistently with high contents of sugar. Sucrose production separated African families in the 1700s, brought class distinction to EuropeÕs families during its shift to capitalism, and now it severs families from eating together at the dinner table with its processed and fast foods. With these implications either we allow sugar to keep moving us, or we move it off the table, out of the cupboard and dump it into Boston Harbor.

Rating:
Summary: How has sugar moved you
Review: Mintz carefully places implications that sugar has caused human nature and culture to change and the end of his work, after a brief overview of all that we have been doing with sugar or rather sugar has been doing with us for the past 1000 years. MintzÕs work is divided into 5 sections: Food, Sociality and Sugar; Production; Consumption; Power; and finally Eating and Being. Mintz really hopes to build a base of facts to reveal to us how we as a people have identified with and sought to consume sugar over the past 1000 years and how that has affected us.

Sugar is always a labor intensive project, from the mill, to the distillery, to the storehouse and all the laborers it takes to run these places. Mintz discusses how this need for labor caused the British to look to Africa and other places to find cheap or free labor. With sugar came slavery, and those slaves who did the plantation work generally worked in the Caribbean while the product they created was delivered to British aristocracy.

In the mid-1700Õs sugar is made cheaper and more accessible to the lower classes and at this point shifts in its purpose to sweeten food. And as outlined by the upper statistics, sugar only continues to grow in demand. It is interesting that because sugar started as something precious and hard to come by, when it later became more cheap and accessible to the working class it still seemed to uphold that Òrareness.Ó The working class felt like they were increasing in freedom and status as they started to consume sugar. Sugar and like products Òrepresented the growing freedom of ordinary folks,Ó yet did Sugar really mean freedom?

In analysis of MintzÕs thesis I am most convinced that sugar is a powerful force that has moved us historically and today. Sugar production has not only caused the physical relocation, its consumption has caused us to form class and psychological identity around it; today we still live with the power of sweetness in our everyday life, most of the time not giving it a second thought.
Sugar took slaves from Africa to the new world in America. It created identity in the aristocracy and later a manufactured sense of freedom among the working class. Today it continues to grow in its use across the world and has become an everyday commodity. The more fast paced life becomes in the 21st century, the more consumers are drawn to pre-prepared processed foods consistently with high contents of sugar. Sucrose production separated African families in the 1700s, brought class distinction to EuropeÕs families during its shift to capitalism, and now it severs families from eating together at the dinner table with its processed and fast foods. With these implications either we allow sugar to keep moving us, or we move it off the table, out of the cupboard and dump it into Boston Harbor.