Sweetness and Power

The Place of Sugar in Modern History

By: Sidney W. Mintz

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

In this eye-opening study, Sidney W. 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 sugar's origins are as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies, with its 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.

©1985 Sidney W. Mintz (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Shows how the intelligent analysis of the history of a single commodity can be used to pry open the history of an entire world of social relationships and human behavior." ( The New York Review of Books)

Sugar is an addiction of high value

I appreciated the perspective of how a certain commodity can work its way into society and what people will do to control it to access it. It’s fascinating.

A wonderful breakdown of the Americas/Europe/Africa trade triangle. Sugar - Resources - Labor - Alcohol

While the book is “dry a f” as another reviewer put it (he’s not entirely wrong) the book is an insightful deep dive on discovery of the Americas and the trade triangle that lead to Europe’s Industrial Revolution and some of the darker aspects of American history. The context it provides to modern global relationships is well worth the read/listen.

Brilliant

The depth of analysis is amazing and the writing is clear and engaging. Highly recommended.

This audiobook’s chapters are inaccurately labeled

Please fix the chapters. Right now, “chapter 1” is the introduction, “chapter 2” is the first chapter, and it goes off the rails quickly, with the actual beginning of chapter 3 somewhere in the midst of what is labeled chapter 4

Should be required reading/listening

This was history, self-help, economics, a diet guide, a critique of capitalism, an examination of our relationships to time, a survey of globalization....this should be read as widely as the Bible