Sugar: A Bittersweet History

by Elizabeth Abbott

The cover is the same as the picture shown.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Food, Microhistory, Food and Drink, Food History, Science

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

http://globalnews.ca/video/1991145/do...

Reviews

[Jelena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zanimljiva i provokativna knjiga o istoriji šecera, njegovom uticaju na revolucije u ishrani ali i hrabra priča o ropstvu.
"One day, the meaning of sugar may become as sweet as the storied sugar of metaphor."

[Amabilis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autorica je krenula na putovanje o povijesti uzgoja šećerne trske od samih početaka pa sve do sadašnjih vremena, i trendova vezano za industriju šećera potaknuta činjenicom da su i njeni pretci bili jedni od milijuna radnika koji su obrađivali trsku na području plodnih otoka srednje Amerike. Tako se kroz knjigu može osjetiti njezina posvećenost ljudskoj patnji, patnji robova, koji su iznijeli najveće muke i nepravde koje se mogu zamisliti. Pri tom koristi puno citata i izvora, dnevnika robovlasnika, svjedočanstva robova koji su radili na tim plantažama, slika i fotografija plantaža, robova koji rade pa se slike iz 17. , 18. i 19. stoljeća smjenjuju sa fotografijama iz 20. i 21.stoljeća ali na njima se i dalje mogu vidjeti robovi, samo u različitim oblicima i vrstama odnosa. Kad se čita o užasima rada na plantažama šećerne trske, silovanja, mučenja, ubijanja, mukotrpan rad, pobune robova i gušenja tih istih , sve se čini tako daleko i dio jedne prošlosti koja je nemoguća u našem svijetu. No da li je to tako? Ja sam spletom životnih okolnosti početkom 21.stoljeća, bio azilant u jednoj skandinavskoj zemlji i u školi za azilante sa mnom su išle dvije djevojke iz Afrike koje su bile bičevane, na svojim leđima su imale tragove od bičevanja. Kad prestaje prošlost, a kad počinje sadašnjost i gdje je ta granica?
Autorica donosi zanimljiv prikaz kako je industrija šećera utjecala na odnose unutar društava, država, kako su u potrebi za jeftinijom radnom snagom plantažeri i vlasnici "biznisa" uvozili druge skupine koje su često bile neprijateljski raspoloženi sa domaćim stanovništvom jer su im snižavali cijenu rada i kvalitetu življenja. Pa su tako na Havajima domoroci postali etnička manjina, preostali na 1/5 , a uvozna radna snaga (Japanci) je postala dominantna etnička skupina. Ili primjer Mauricijusa, otoka uz Afriku, gdje su uvozili Indijce kao jeftiniju radnu snagu, pa tako izmijenili strukturu stanovništa da je čak rupi službena valuta. Do danas na mnogim mjestima gdje je industrija šećera imala svoju veliku ulogu ostalo žarište sukoba različitih etničkih skupina koje su prije svega poslužile kao sredstvo izrabljivanja i manipulacije po onoj staroj rimskoj ”Zavadi, i vladaj”. Primjer Dominikanske republike gdje kroz umjetno stvaranje ”pravih” i ”krivih” nacija , ona kriva i etnički manja obavlja robovski rad u poljima trske. Ili primjer Kube, ratovi za Kubu, gdje je u pozadini uvijek bio rat za plantaže šećera i plodnu zemlju uz koju dolazi jeftina radna snaga.
Koliko su aktualni ti odnosi danas? Čitajući ovu knjigu nije mi se činilo da prolazim kroz neke davne ružne priče koje služe kao opomena, nego čitavo vrijeme su mi se stvarale analogije sa sadašnjim vremenima, u pitanju rada, odnosa unutar društva i država.
Šećerna repa kao drugi usjev nije pokriven, spominje se samo u kontekstu odnosa sa trskom pa recimo zanimljiv je način na koji se započelo sa uzgojem iz repe. U vrijeem Napoleona, Englezi su blokirali sve luke da spriječe uvoz šećera kao bitne robe u Europu, a Napoleon je naredio da se htino pronađe način kako povisiti način šećera iz obične stočne repe koja je imala mali postotak šećera. Radom tadašnjih znanstvenika došlo se do novih sorti i nastajala je nova industrija. Zanimljiv primjer kako iz rata, pored uništenja, nastaju nove tehnologije , načini i napori ljudskom uma. Zanimljivo je kako su nacisti, pobornici ideologije ”krvi i tla” također cijenili jako šećernu repu pa su prva područja koja su zauzeli bila područja Češke i Austrije, tradicionalno šećeranski krajevi. Radi svoje mnogostruke uloge, kao hrane, energenta, hrane za životinje, repa je gledana kao univerzalni energent za ljude,strojeve i životinje.
Kao što i kroz naš krvotok ide šećer , tako je šećer išao ”krvotokom” : afrički robovi, plantaže na otocima srednje Amerike u vlasništvu europskih kolonijalnih sila pa taj krvavo ukuhan i kristaliziran šećer je stizao do tvrđave Europe. Prvotna akumulacija ogromnog bogatstva europskih kolonijalnih sila je upravo došla od krvavog šećera.
Negdje sam našao podatak (ne u ovoj knjizi) da naš mozak treba otprilike 4 g/h glukoze , i da se to odnosi i na period kada spavamo. To je otprilike jedna mala žličica za čaj. Zanimljiv je podatak da Kinezi nisu nikad kroz povijest koristili šećer, imali su različite pripravke od trske, čak i vino, ali baš rafinirani šećer ne, da bi trenutno postali među top 4 proizvođača šećera na svijetu. Nemaju običaj zaslađivati čaj, kao niti ja što me možda čini kulturnim "kinezom".
Autorica je detaljno obradila period borbe za oslobađanje od ropstva koja je trajala i preko 200 godina, jer su bili veliki otpori industrije šećera. Kasnije donosi prikaz kako su i nakon odluke na papiru ti isti robovi bili samo radnici sa jadnim plaćama, uz iste bijedne uvjete rada. Posebno je tužna priča kako su nudili prevarantske ugovore nepismenim azijskim seljacima, kulijima, kako su ih zvali, tražili su isključivo mlade ljude, neženje kao poželjne za rad na plantažama, a tamo ih nisu čekale žene. Radi rasnih i kulturnih prepreka zabranjene su im bile ostale žene. Tako su umirali u kombinaciji patničkog rada, opijanja alkoholom i opijumom.
Zanimljiv je taj prikaz "pozadinskog svijeta” politike, kada čitaš o povijesnim događajima gdje se spominju ratovi i sukobi, uvijek izostave stvarne uzroke, a recimo kroz ovakve knjige se jasno mogu vidjeti stvarni uzroci ratova, odnosa unutar društava , etničkih napetosti unutar država na svijetu.
Da sve ne bude crno, a bome je i bilo (ima onaj vic kad misionara bosanca koji se tek vratio iz Afrike pitaju : ”I šta ima dole?”, a on odgovara : ”ma, šuti, sve crno”) , autorica na kraju donosi prikaz sadašnjih odnosa u svijetu industrije šećera sa posebnim osvrtom i nadom kako bi se postojeće industrije (kao u Brazilu gdje flex auta koriste više vrsta goriva,većinom etanol) mogle okrenuti proizvodnji goriva (bioetanol) i energije koja je čistija od nafte kao izvora.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more accurate (and long-winded) title for this would have been "A History of the Slave Trade Resulting from the Sugar Industry." Abbott's research is meticulous and her prose is adequate, faltering only when she tries to wax eloquent, but her ability to stay on topic is sorely lacking. At least two-thirds of the text is devoted to a thorough exploration of slavery, which, while obviously an important topic in itself, is not the professed subject of this book. Had Abbott shortened the section on slavery by at least half and sought a more balanced narrative of the sugar trade (temporally, geographically, and economically), "Sugar" may have merited three or even four stars. As it stands, this text is well intentioned, fairly well written and certainly well researched, but Abbott's favoring of her preferred subjects over others cripples any attempt toward academic objectivity she may have made and leads to an unfocused, meandering and unbalanced text. Not recommended.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of sugar is a history of slavery.

I am not sure I can adequately convey the horror and grief I felt while reading about slavery on sugar plantations. It disturbs me that history books refer to the “slave trade” as if it was the same as the spice or tea trade.

Sugar: A Bittersweet History is worth reading for its information about sugar and account of slavery.

I read the book while researching the environmental, health, and social implications of sugar. Read the post at https://greengroundswell.com/health-a...

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't really so bad I couldn't finish, more along the lines that the library wanted it back and I just wasn't taken with it.

I was about 1/2 way through it and it was still just all about slavery on sugar plantations. After flipping through it, the kind of stuff I was curious about (like modern information on the sugar industry) was hardly covered at all.

Yes, slavery was bad. But how about next time just doing a book about slavery? Sheesh.

[Quinten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising! Although the name is a bit misleading--the book focuses almost entirely on the labor behind sugar, not on the substance itself--I found the book quite interesting. You will learn a great deal about the surprising influence of sugar on the slave trade, the abolition movement, and the landscape of former European colonies in the East and West "Indies."

This is a history book, and the tone is on the dry side. However, it is very readable and kept me engrossed for several commutes.

I would have liked to learn a little more about the cultural impacts of the consumption of sugar. We learn a little about tea and confections and their place in the social order, but this portion of the book is far outweighed by a discussion of the living conditions of mostly enslaved laborers.

I learned a lot of interesting facts about the Haitian revolution that were completely new to me and have inspired me to learn more in that topic.

[Ken Puddicombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Abbott has written a book that covers not only the history and background of our most alluring everyday substance, but has documented the impact it has had on the world economy, even today. Most fascinating of all, is the way she has delved into the implications sugar has had on slavery and indentureship. In her skillful literary hands, sugar emerges as an iniquitous and sometimes evil cause that has provoked many of the world's conflicts and social inequity. For a non-fiction book, I found it hard to put it down.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, but everything except the sugar industry in the Caribbean prior to the abolition of slavery was crammed into less than one-quarter of the book, and for the first three quarters, the focus was more on the slave trade and slave life than sugar. Slavery was, of course, a huge part of the spread of the sugar industry, but it wasn't ALL of it, and the other parts deserved more attention than they got.

[Katherine Lemieux]

Very interesting, a good mix of personal connection (to keep the reader engaged) and research findings

[Jon · Rating 1 out of 5]

An utter bore-fest. This was not so much about the history of sugar, but almost entirely about the african slave trade for the caribbean sugar indusrty. The author covers about 10 pages on pre-industrial sugar production, and then endlessly covers the slavery subject while ignoring the titled subject of her book: the sugar itself. Slavery accounts for over 50 lines of index citations, while sugar beets only 11-and corn syrup with only one mention on page 7! I would have rated this book better if the title was something along the lines of "Slavery and Sugarcane", but as a book about sugar it's a total failure. It seems like the author saw Mark Kurlansky's book "Salt" on a shelf and thought she could cash in the same way. Bad times.

[Lee]

Historical account of the political, religious background to sugar's power. Dry, but incredibly interesting background. Unfortunately it seems the last chapter only grazes on the current political influence of the industry.

[Shannon Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive
Compelling
Eye-opening

[L. Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of the slave trade involving this global product. If you want to be disgusted and educated, a must read.

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elizabeth Abbott did a great deal of research for her book, Sugar: A Bittersweet History; but there is one very big problem: over 65% of the book is about slavery.

Don’t get me wrong, I realize that slavery was a big part of sugar’s history. It kept sugar cheap, enabling producers to keep up with demand (and even create some of that demand). It is appalling reading about the practices of plantation owners and living conditions of slaves, but it gets redundant. Not permitting mothers to breastfeed newborns, rape, cutting off body parts, and forcing slaves to grow their own food while not giving them adequate time to tend their gardens or supplementing their food when crops fail are all despicable, but repeatedly telling me does not make it more despicable.

Besides, anyone who has studied social studies in school knows the horrors committed in the name of free labor/cheap production, even if without all the specific acts Abbott provides, and I don’t think those specifics (even/especially when so numerous) do anything to elevate the statement that “slavery is bad.” What’s more, there are even minute details that are entirely useless, such as how some plantation overseer named Thomas Thistlewood had sex with one slave “234 times in their first year [who] was his partner in 65 percent of his sexual encounters.”

What was more interesting was seeing how the sugar industry was affected by world events, such as wars; and is partly responsible for lasting racial tensions in places like Fiji and Hawaii, and the introduction of some invasive species in Hawaii and Australia; and how slave trade impacted other major industries (e.g. ship building, the manufacturing of various related tools and equipment, the employment of sailors, tobacco, furnishings, clothing, etc.), and even the African economy (slaves were more profitable than any other commodity they could export, so Africans were incentivized to capture and sell people from other tribes, effectively creating “social and political structures hostile to peaceful economic development.”).

Likewise, learning about how West Indian sugar plantations “set new standards for political pressure tactics and may well have created modern-day lobbying,” and that plantations have been continually rebranding slavery —“apprenticeship,” “indentureship,” etc.— to avoid fair treatment of workers and, to this day, use capitalism to defend actions such as not paying overtime and exempting sugar workers from the Reagan administration’s 1986 temporary amnesty for seasonal agricultural workers, depriving them of a chance for a green card and legal status in the United States,” was more engaging because they are more relevant (and her addressing of these things is far less repetitive).

The last ~30% of the book was intriguing, but it was hard to get to that point, as the first chunk of text was too one-note to keep my attention.

Also, I knew treadmills were torture devices!

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Food History

Elizabeth Abbott’s Sugar: A Bittersweet History is one of those sweeping, emotionally complex histories that begins in the kitchen but sprawls outward to touch nearly every corner of human civilisation. Sugar, after all, is not just a sweetener—it is an engine of empire, slavery, industrialisation, and modern consumer culture. Abbott takes us on this immense journey with both scholarly care and a storyteller’s flair, showing how something so deceptively simple has been both pleasure and poison in human history.

The book traces sugar’s rise from a rare mediaeval luxury in Europe to its transformation into the backbone of colonial economies. Cane fields in the Caribbean and the brutal plantation system form the heart of Abbott’s narrative. She doesn’t flinch from detailing the horrors: the Atlantic slave trade, the staggering mortality of enslaved labourers, and the dehumanising conditions that literally fed Europe’s sweet tooth. Sugar is never just a commodity here—it becomes a symbol of how wealth and cruelty were braided together for centuries.

Yet Abbott also balances that darkness with cultural history. We learn how sugar revolutionised diets, how it seeped into rituals of hospitality and class distinction, and how it eventually democratised itself as industrialisation made cheap sweets available to the masses. The Victorian tea table, the rise of candy shops, the invention of Coca-Cola—Abbott reveals how sugar shaped not just economies but the very rituals of everyday life.

What makes the book so compelling is Abbott’s refusal to keep sugar’s story in the past. She draws clear, sometimes devastating lines from plantation economies to today’s global health crisis, where overconsumption of sugar fuels obesity and diabetes worldwide. Sugar’s legacy is “bittersweet” not only because of its violent history but also because the very substance that once symbolised refinement and abundance now represents overindulgence and decline.

Abbott’s prose is engaging without being sentimental. She has the rare ability to weave anecdotes—a royal banquet, a ship full of molasses, a modern sugar lobby hearing—into a coherent and emotionally resonant tapestry. She insists that we look at sugar not merely as a kitchen ingredient but as a force that shaped nations, toppled lives, and continues to influence global politics and public health.

Sugar: A Bittersweet History is essential reading for anyone interested in food history, colonial history, or the tangled web of pleasure and exploitation that has fuelled our diets. It reminds us that every spoonful has a story, and that sweetness often comes at a steep cost.

Final Verdict? A masterclass in connecting the everyday with the epic. This book will change the way you look at your sugar bowl forever.

[Susan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well written and excellently researched covering almost every aspect of the sugar from it's earliest beginnings to the present day. The effects of sugar production on the world economy are covered. The dark history of sugar plantations and the enormous wealth they produced for owners, mostly living in England is thoroughly explored. Almost every country that was or is involved in sugar production from cane to beets is discussed within the pages of this book. Also explored, are the many ways that sugar moved from a royal and upper class treat to one which even the poorest housewife could include in her food preparations. This is only a short summary of the many aspects of sugar that are covered in this book, because sugar was more than crop, cash, slaves, shippers, etc. It is imbedded in all aspects of any countries economy. I will never look at sugar in the same way, nor will I ignore the possibilities for a sugar industry that is friendly to the environment and to health. Elizabeth Abbott is an excellent writer.

[Ajay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sugar follows the history of one of the world's most influential commodities. This is a book that makes incredibly clear how essential an element sugar was to the formation of capitalism and imperialism. How terrible the system was for all involved -- except perhaps the absentee owners. And is extraordinarily detailed and insightful.

Yet, the book does a poor job of balancing topics devoting a majority of it's time to the New World slave-plantation system. Also a surprising amount of focus is on the sexual relationships of slaves, drivers, owners, etc... I found this to be well researched, but a bit sensationalist -- done for audience appeal rather then genuine connection to the main topic.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. So much detail on the inequity of slavery in the Caribbean sugar trade. At times the writing was a little repetitive and I would have liked more exploration of the broader themes than yet more detail of the awfulness. This book is filled with individual stories of the slaves and slave owners with the sort of detail that enables you to clearly imagine their daily experiences. Overall, I learnt a lot from the book about a critical sector of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that, for me anyway, has always been overshadowed by stories about cotton picking in the deep South of the US.

[Tamzin Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book with a lot of important information. When I was reading the reviews, I rolled my eyes at people saying things like “too much talk about slavery!!” because…come on…the history of sugar IS the history of slavery. While these details are tough to read, they’re also important to absorb to understand the real impact of the food we’ve historically consumed. The end of the book with more recent sugar history was as fascinating as it was deeply disturbing.

Note: I didn’t appreciate the subtle fat shaming/fatphobia when the author discussed modern sugar intakes.

[Sacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very focused on slavery in the West Indies. I did not get a sense of the global history of growing sugar cane nor of other sweeteners. There was some hint of those - especially sugar beet. There was a mention of a better sugar growing (and consuming) culture in China.

I would have liked to read more about the shift to mechanized harvesting and processing. There was also a case made that working conditions in the sugar industry remain horrible. As if the old slave culture has never been cleared out.

[Samuel Gaeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most graphic book I’ve ever read. Sugar is inextricably linked with slavery and the brutality of the sugar slaves was discussed in great detail. It was interesting to see how sugar production changed in response to the end of slavery and the discovery of the sugar beet in Europe. Major military leaders had great concern over sugar supply (Napoleon, Hitler). Dense book but interesting when I had time to sit down with it.

[Scott Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had hoped for a bit more scientific history of sugar, but this book, focusing on the economic history, is fine. One major problem I had with it: at a certain point, covering big sugar cartels in the Florida Everglades, it refers to a movie made at the time called "Sugar Kings" which it says starred Jodie Foster and Robert Deniro. There is no such movie. This kind of willful error throws a lot of doubt on the veracity of the rest of the history related.

[Deena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sugar, spice and everything nice" sounds like a compliment, but it now leaves a bitter aftertaste.

The history of sugar is no fairy tale- the misery and destruction it brought continues to be far reaching.

I started working in pastry because I was attracted to the joy that it brought, and wanted to be part of the people that propagated it.

Currently rethinking my identity as a pastry chef.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wide-ranging history of the rise of the sugar industry and the environmental damage and mistreatment of human beings that accompanied it. Oddly optimistic about its future use as a source of fuel and electricity, which is something I've not heard for awhile.

[Amy GB · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's so rare to have a book that does a thorough, sweeping, layman's guide to a subject. This does a fine job of it, although could have done with some editing as it's a bit repetitive and long winded in parts.

[Morgan W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never imagined a book about sugar could be so interesting!

[Ufloat2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of anthropolgy and history. Well researched and informative, addressing social and economic injustices. Read this book for a commodity research term paper.

[Bob Redmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 400 pages and 700 footnotes, Elizabeth Abbott tells the relentlessly monotonous and sordid history of sugar. At times (OK, most of the time) I feared it was her writing style that was the main cause of "relentlessly monotonous," but she cannot be blamed that the story of sugar, for the past 525 years, has been one howling tragedy after another: slaveries, environmental destructions and economic ruins, not to mention poor health for those who indulge.

Sugar was not just a circumstance of slavery across the Western hemisphere, but its prime cause. Abbott quotes food historian Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (p. 72): "So many tears were shed for sugar that it by rights ought to have lost its sweetness."

Sugar--in its earliest form of sweet cane grasses--spread from the South Pacific, to New Guinea and northern India (whence came the word "khanda" or "candy"), where it spread both east (to China) and west (to Persia, i.e. Iran). From Persia, sugar and refining techniques made it to the Mediterranean and Europe. Portugal started the African slave trade in 1441, almost immediately using slaves to cut cane on their western shores.

Sugar was an integral part of trade and conquest routes that linked Portugal, Spain, France, England, and Belgium with slave colonies in West Africa and colonized territories in the Caribbean "West Indies": Haiti, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Nevis, Jamaica, Cuba, and other islands, as well as Louisiana in the United States. Eventually the European empires included the East Indies (India); the various partners and planters squared off against each other in political intrigues.

Abbott recounts all of it in exhausting detail, seemingly transcribing her research notes rather than editing them. She details slave relations in several plantations in minutely drawn accounts, as well as tracing the bigger movements of the slave trade, revolts, abolition movements, and corporate disputes. She covers the agricultural as well as human disasters: (p. 379): "Sugarcane (but not sugar beet) has irreversibly altered the environment, and, the World Wildlife Fund reports, has likely "caused a greater loss of biodiversity on the planet than any other single crop, due to its destruction of habitat to make way for plantations, its intensive use of water for irrigation, its heavy use of agricultural chemicals, and the polluted wastewater that is routinely discharged in the sugar production process." The statistics she cites in support of this conclusion are shocking. (A contemporary example (p. 380): "A sugar factory crushing 1250 tons of cane daily uses 40,000 gallons of water an hour and discharges anywhere from eight thousand to twenty thousand gallons per hour of liquid waste as well as solid and gaseous waste and other contaminants.")

In the first and last two chapters Abbott broadens her purview beyond slavery and crop production, to marketing and consumption. (She doesn't ever address the physiology behind sugar and our craving for it.) In the first chapter, Abbott mentions the demand for sugar in the 16th century. She ignores that part of the equation for the next 300 pages, until the end of the book, when she tells about the early corporate history of chocolate companies Hershey's, Cadbury's, and Mars, as well as the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, which introduced to the masses Dr. Pepper, Hires Root Beer, Coca-Cola, ice cream cones, Jell-O, and cotton candy.

These sections would have been better suited as a through-line to provide breaks in the misery she describes for the bulk of the book. Had she written more thoroughly on those forces--market demands behind the atrocities of slavery and obscene profits, readers could understand how the same nexus of bodily desire, corporate opportunism, and cultural blindness might still be prevalent, and might be defeated.

*

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: Our book club (which I have mentioned before), had covered a theme of "food" in which we read Michael Pollan and other sources on general food production. During our meeting/meal, it was proposed that we focus the next time on sugar, and in addition to reading about it, also give up eating processed sugar. After reading this book, I didn't need much encouragement to limit my intake of the white processed powder.

[Daniel Etherington · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential book if you're at all interested in sugar - and, let's face it, most of us do enjoy it as part of our diet, for better or worse. And I say that as one addict among millions, even billions.

A history of sugar is, inevitably, largely a history of slavery. And this notably means British slavery. The slave and sugar trades were the brute motors of much of the British empire and its wealth. This fact is so fundamentally important to recognise as we live in an era when, particularly in Britain (and I'm British, so that's my perspective), we need to do more to face up to the horrors that accompanied the glories of the empire.#

In the tiresome "culture wars" fed by extremists and a manipulative media, it's a case of people toppling over statues versus people getting red-faced about attempts to "cancel" history. Which is just nonsense. What is necessary is a deepening and widening of history, to tell the full story of empire and slavery, not just the highlights sanctioned by the establishment over the decades. This isn't "cancelling" anything, it's about learning more, alleviating ignorance (as ignorance feeds bigotry).

Texts like this play a key role in that deepening and widening of history, going way beyond the basic narrative of empire and slavery. Abbot goes into great detail of the slave trade; the key figures in it; the mechanisms of control; the processes of exploiting human life to farm sugar cane (a harsh process both physically and mentally); the resulting unique cultures of the places where sugar was grown (notably the Caribbean, but also Louisiana, Mauritious, Fiji and Hawaii). The legacy of sugar cane growing - slavery and the ensuing and equally horrifying indentured labour - created the societies that continue to define these places, and their social, cultural and economic problems.

She also talks about the growth of sugar beets as a a rival to cane and goes on to explore the chocolate and candy/sweets industries, the rise of carbonated drinks, and the roles these play in modern societies. This notably includes the control that corporate Big Sugar exerts over politicians, despite the scientific health warnings again sugar playing too big a part in our diets.

It's a hefty book, and features one of my usual bugbears - despite Abbot being based in Toronto (ie the metrical Canada not old-fashioned US), most of the weights and measures aren't in SIs. As I live in the 21st century, I can't really relate to pounds and wish she'd included kilo translations. But it's a minor quibble given the overall strength and value of Abbot's work.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Cane cultivation destroyed the indigenous Arawaks and Caribs, degraded their environment and created a New World peopled by Europeans and enslaved Africans and later millions of indentured Indians, Chinese and Japanese. Racism developed to justify black slavery and ‘coolie’ labor, a new kind of slavery.” → After reading this concise excerpted summary, you could probably skip 350 out of the 406 pages of this book which give excessive, tangential and bizarre details of the lives of individual slaves from this period (“Let’s meet Prince Apongo, one of the Africans who cut cane and…” or “Let’s peep into the life of…” or “Consider Molly…”). I mention that not to diminish the tragedies of slavery, but to suggest this title is completely misleading, it should be something like Sugar Tangents.

HOWEVER, there were interesting anecdotes about the effects of sugar and its changing uses. It was interesting to connect sugar to the Industrial Revolution, in that the nature of work changed (factories), population doubled, and diets changed based on eating habits (“gobble, gulp and go”), which created a huge entryway for sugar used to preserve processed packaged foods, bottles of soda, candies. I recently decided to cut out sugary treats from my diet (for my health, diabetes), and the way sugar was discussed in this book (i.e. “delightfully sweet confections”) was almost too much to handle, making me feel withdrawal symptoms all over again…It helps to align sugar with the blood and tears of slaves, like blood diamonds (as in, it makes me want sugar less…though again, I’m not happy there is a connection).

I like Abbott’s quote of another book that the “work force 50 years from now is going to look fat, one-legged, blind, a diminution of able-bodied workers at every level.” OR it’s possible that sugar will make a 180 and move from human consumption to ethanol fuel/medicines/plastics.