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| Bittersweet: The Story of Sugar | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Macinnis
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $9.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 702205
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 1865086576
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9781865086576
ASIN: 1865086576
Publication Date: May 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 | | NEXT » |
 An evenhanded introduction to an important food November 11, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It isn't easy to find books about sugar that do not grind an ax, usually antisugar, but not always. Peter Macinnis's little book -- hardly more than an extended essay, really -- avoids this error, with wit and flair.
Sugar cane has been around for perhaps 9,000 years as a cultivated crop, and sugarmaking not nearly so long. Macinnis rightly concentrates on the past 400 years, when sugar broke out into the world. It is now produced, from cane or beet, in more than 100 countries.
One fault of this book is that it does not make clear how very important sugar remains, especially in the diets of poorer people. The very poor do not eat sugar, but as soon as people rise above semistarvation, one of the first things they do is buy sugar. Sugar supplies nearly 10% of calories worldwide. To Americans, who worry about their waistlines, this may seem like a bad thing. But calories are inadequate in the diets of hundreds of millions of people. Sugar is excellent food.
Sugar growing and manufacturing, however, has not been excellent. Cane does not lend itself to small farming -- for one thing, in the best sugar areas, it is a two-year crop. This means plantations, and plantations usually mean exploitation of labor. In cane's case, slavery. Not always, however. Hawaii's sugar labor is the highest-paid agricultural labor in the world. But there's not much of it. Sugar today can be highly mechanized, but in much of the world labor is still cheaper than machines.
There is an enormous historical literature on sugar and slavery. Not much of it is easy reading and most of it assumes background information that most readers don't have. 'Bittersweet' is the best general introduction to sugar I have seen, fair and fairly sophisticated. Unlike, say, Mintz's book, mentioned in an earlier review.
 Lively and engrossing history of the social impact of sugar August 8, 2004
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
This is a wonderfully interesting and engrossing history of a major food crop filled with interesting details concerning people and events. Although Peter Macinnis traces the story of sugar from its origins in New Guinea through to the 20th century, he does so in a very entertaining rather than comprehensive way. As such, this is a good introduction, but will leave the reader with many questions unanswered.
The subtitle, The Story of Sugar could really have been The Story of Sugar and Slavery since, according to the author, this form of forced labor has been so integral to the success of the crop. In fact I am sure that the "Bitter" half of the title is a reference to slavery. Macinnis states that not only the institution of slavery, but also the global politics of Colonialism, has its foundation in the global production of sugar.
So as you can see, the world as we know it has to a large extent been molded by the story of sugar. Thus this book, or some other like it, is important reading for a good understanding of modern world history. Being an Australian gives the author just enough distance from the European and American sugar empires to tell the story with a balanced and somewhat objective point of view.
The book is illustrated with black-and-white maps and each chapter ends with a historic sugar recipe. There is a two page glossary of terms related to sugar production as well as a seven page bibliography of further readings. There are no footnotes to break the narrative.
This is a great introduction to the story of one of the most important cash crops in world history.
 Bittersweet is missing something May 5, 2004
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is decent popular social history. However, I find it amazing that Macinnis has failed to acknowledge or reference the brilliant 1985 work on this same subject by anthropologist Sidney Mintz: Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. How could he have missed this book in doing his research?
Bittersweet History April 1, 2004
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Macinnis has written the exhaustive history of sugar cultivation and trade. I doubt anyone could do the job as well. His blend of fact and humour make for fascinating reading that rarely bogs down. Definitely a book to read, even for diabetics like myself!
Well researched December 20, 2003
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book is well researched and takes a careful look at the history of sugar throughout the ages. Unfortunately the writer gets sidetracked into detailing the history of slavery as well and, while admitting that the development and success of sugar plantations in the West Indies is inextricably linked with slavery, the book would have been better if it had been more tightly focussed on the primary topic.The most interesting aspect of the book to me was that it was Australia-centric, rather than having a mind-set based on either American or English history. It's good to be reminded once in a while that there are other countries publishing books.
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