
Sugar: A Global History
(Reaktion)
It’s no surprise that sugar has been on our minds for millennia. First cultivated in New Guinea around 8000 B.C.E., this addictive sweetener has since come to dominate our appetites—whether in candy, desserts, soft drinks, or even pasta sauces—for better and for worse. This book by CHNY member Andrew F. Smith offers a fascinating history of this simultaneously beloved and reviled ingredient, holding its incredible value as a global commodity up against its darker legacies of slavery and widespread obesity. Sugar’s past is chock full of determined adventurers: relentless sugar barons, and plantation owners who worked alongside plant breeders, food processors, distributors, and politicians to build a business based on our cravings.