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Object Lessons
Potato
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Baked potatoes, Bombay potatoes, pommes frites . . . everyone eats potatoes, but what do they mean? To the United Nations they mean global food security (potatoes are the world's fourth most important food crop). To 18th-century philosophers they promised happiness. Nutritionists warn that too many increase your risk of hypertension. For the poet Seamus Heaney they conjured up both his mother and the 19th-century Irish famine.
What stories lie behind the ordinary potato? The potato is entangled with the birth of the liberal state and the idea that individuals, rather than communities, should form the building blocks of society. Potatoes also speak about family, and our quest for communion with the universe. Thinking about potatoes turns out to be a good way of thinking about some of the important tensions in our world.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Baked potatoes, Bombay potatoes, pommes frites . . . everyone eats potatoes, but what do they mean? To the United Nations they mean global food security (potatoes are the world's fourth most important food crop). To 18th-century philosophers they promised happiness. Nutritionists warn that too many increase your risk of hypertension. For the poet Seamus Heaney they conjured up both his mother and the 19th-century Irish famine.
What stories lie behind the ordinary potato? The potato is entangled with the birth of the liberal state and the idea that individuals, rather than communities, should form the building blocks of society. Potatoes also speak about family, and our quest for communion with the universe. Thinking about potatoes turns out to be a good way of thinking about some of the important tensions in our world.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
144 pages, Paperback
First published March 21, 2019
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118 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
March 21, 2019
Well, reading this book certainly made me look at potatoes in a new light. Having always been one of my very favourite foods, it was nice to see the humble spud being given its due. Beginning with its first cultivation in the Americas over 10,000 years ago, the potato has long been an important crop to keep bellies full. Beyond that the tuber has played an important role in everything from politics to the growth of nations.
I appreciated learning so much about this food I often find myself defending (it's not just a starchy carb, people -- it's got good-for-you stuff, too!), but I did find this book a bit on the dry side. Although there were some interesting pictures and other insets, I was disappointed that there was not a smattering of recipes scattered throughout the pages. I would have loved to have seen some real historical recipes included in regular intervals.
For me the best part of the book was the more personal section at the very end where the author and her sister share family history and how both sides of their family have special recipes featuring potatoes that have been handed down. I loved that these recipes were shared and I wished there'd been more of that throughout the book.
Overall, this was an interesting read, and will be a good resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the potato!
3.25 stars for Potato.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for providing me with a DRC of this book.
I appreciated learning so much about this food I often find myself defending (it's not just a starchy carb, people -- it's got good-for-you stuff, too!), but I did find this book a bit on the dry side. Although there were some interesting pictures and other insets, I was disappointed that there was not a smattering of recipes scattered throughout the pages. I would have loved to have seen some real historical recipes included in regular intervals.
For me the best part of the book was the more personal section at the very end where the author and her sister share family history and how both sides of their family have special recipes featuring potatoes that have been handed down. I loved that these recipes were shared and I wished there'd been more of that throughout the book.
Overall, this was an interesting read, and will be a good resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the potato!
3.25 stars for Potato.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for providing me with a DRC of this book.
February 14, 2019
Informative ~ Surprising ~ Enjoyable
tl; dr: Potatoes changed people and civilization.
I am a sucker for this genre, where an author takes something ubiquitous to reframe everything you know. Potatoes win, in general. But, Earle didn't rest on the natural appeal of her subject. She did a wonderful job of subvert commonly held beliefs. Her book is fabulously transgressive, in aspects. Her prose is appealing. Overall an ideal read for a food lover who wants a non-fiction book or for a history lover with a carb addiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
tl; dr: Potatoes changed people and civilization.
I am a sucker for this genre, where an author takes something ubiquitous to reframe everything you know. Potatoes win, in general. But, Earle didn't rest on the natural appeal of her subject. She did a wonderful job of subvert commonly held beliefs. Her book is fabulously transgressive, in aspects. Her prose is appealing. Overall an ideal read for a food lover who wants a non-fiction book or for a history lover with a carb addiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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October 30, 2018From the same publisher as the 33 1/3 series, Object Lessons are a similarly pocket-sized range of short, detailed studies, but instead of music they're about stuff, in the widest sense – everything from golf balls to hashtags. I'd hitherto avoided them, because they looked vaguely kin to the short books on narrow but deep themes that the School of Life were doing, and even a vague similarity to anything those numpties produce is enough that I back slowly away in a defensive stance. But this one overcame my reluctance, because come on, the potato. Queen of vegetables. The original superfood. The reason by its absence that all classical and mediaeval banquets, however lavish they may sound, are less appealing to me qua dinners than a trip to the chippy at the top of our road (which isn't even a particularly good chippy). I was already a big fan before I read my first book on them, a study by the excellent John Reader (which isn't referenced here, though there's due reverence paid to Redcliffe Salaman's The History and Social Influence of the Potato, the sort of towering work I'm saving for a rainy day like some people save Ulysses). And to be honest, if I were only to have one potato book I'd probably still go for Reader's – but thank heavens we do not yet live in the sort of nightmarish world where a man must choose only a single book on spuds, for this still has plenty to recommend it. Earle has less of a general survey of the potato's history than Reader, but considerably more politics, including an appearance by French theory's very own Mr Potato Head*, Foucault. The suggestion is that the potato has played a double-edged role in the history of class struggle; on the one hand the 'anarchist tuber' which enables self-sufficiency, and sneaks under the noses of the church and state authorities who can't tithe and tax it as readily as grain or livestock; this is the vegetable which enabled the small Irish farmer to subsist on his own plot, outside the life of wage slavery, and thus whose blight was welcomed by certain of the colonial administrators as a spur to active economic participation well worth the lives lost in the short term (isn't it funny how left accelerationists never seem to notice they're aping the absolute worst capitalists?). But against that is the idea that the sheer efficiency of spuds at converting space and sunlight to calories was as crucial to the evolution of modern capitalism as grain was to the beginnings of urban culture. A study is quoted suggesting potatoes can be blamed for a quarter of the population growth since the wider world found them, which...I mean, ever since I read The World Without Us, I've been cheered by the notion that if humanity does end, we'll at least take the cabbage with us. But to think that the wonderful spud can be held accountable for our teeming overpopulation...I know the fault is ours, and they are but too helpful servants to foolish masters, and yet still it saddens me.
There's plenty more, though, for saying this book is only a hundred or so pages. The history of potato evangelists, some of whose condescensions seem painfully familiar – consider William Buchan in 1797, blaming the poor for their bad diet, and then think that at least he was promoting spuds, not bloody aspartame, so what's this 'progress' business again? The potato's etymology in various languages is considered, as are the various ways in which cultures have considered its relationship to such kindred veg as the sweet potato and Jerusalem artichoke. Falstaff's rain of potatoes is sadly absent, despite Earle having on her desk a postcard with the wise words "Happiness is regular sex and potatoes", but the poetic potato of Heaney and Neruda is considered. The resemblance of the Venus of Willendorf to a vegetable her makers could not have known is the sort of thing from which myths of Atlantis take sustenance, but Earle contents herself with wondering why no myth has ever seen the world created from a cosmic spud; alas, even to the Inca, the vegetable never had the flashy cult status of maize. And finally, co-written with her sister, a chapter musing on the ways in which potatoes are threaded through the history of one immigrant family, her own – and the ways in which the vegetable found it far easier to adapt to new lands than the people did. A book almost worthy of its subject, and when the subject is as magnificent as the potato, I suspect that's all that heaven allows.
*Not that I'll ever hear that name again without a shudder, not after reading certain speculations Earle quotes from Salaman about the rituals surrounding potato cultivation in the tuber's South American cradle.
(Netgalley ARC)
There's plenty more, though, for saying this book is only a hundred or so pages. The history of potato evangelists, some of whose condescensions seem painfully familiar – consider William Buchan in 1797, blaming the poor for their bad diet, and then think that at least he was promoting spuds, not bloody aspartame, so what's this 'progress' business again? The potato's etymology in various languages is considered, as are the various ways in which cultures have considered its relationship to such kindred veg as the sweet potato and Jerusalem artichoke. Falstaff's rain of potatoes is sadly absent, despite Earle having on her desk a postcard with the wise words "Happiness is regular sex and potatoes", but the poetic potato of Heaney and Neruda is considered. The resemblance of the Venus of Willendorf to a vegetable her makers could not have known is the sort of thing from which myths of Atlantis take sustenance, but Earle contents herself with wondering why no myth has ever seen the world created from a cosmic spud; alas, even to the Inca, the vegetable never had the flashy cult status of maize. And finally, co-written with her sister, a chapter musing on the ways in which potatoes are threaded through the history of one immigrant family, her own – and the ways in which the vegetable found it far easier to adapt to new lands than the people did. A book almost worthy of its subject, and when the subject is as magnificent as the potato, I suspect that's all that heaven allows.
*Not that I'll ever hear that name again without a shudder, not after reading certain speculations Earle quotes from Salaman about the rituals surrounding potato cultivation in the tuber's South American cradle.
(Netgalley ARC)
September 25, 2024
Is this a crazy take I thought I was going to learn more? But very readable and pleasant for class reading so probably I should just be happy about that.
March 17, 2019
This book is more a philosophical treatise on the meaning of potatoes in society rather than the fact-filled culinary and botanical book I was expecting. The style switches back and forth between academic investigation into the historical impact of potatoes, potatoes in art, and very personal opinions. It ends with a history of the author’s family, and two family recipes for potato dishes that the author feels exemplify the importance that potatoes have had for her family.
The book deals briefly with the potato’s origins in Southern America, and its introduction into Europe by the Spanish Conquistadors, and then to its spread around the world: potatoes “are the quintessential immigrant, arriving without fanfare, performing useful functions, and attracting little attention, at least at first”.
As liberal thought in Europe began to lean towards the idea that healthy well-fed workers are more productive and less likely to riot, “the ordinary potato had become the darling of the Enlightenment”, and the eating of potatoes was increasingly encouraged, particularly for the poor. “Potatoes are in fact the best of all the important crops at converting water into calories. The potato, in short, is an excellent way of feeding more people from the same agricultural inputs. It has further agricultural and nutritional merits, since it flourishes in a range of climates and growing conditions and is rich in vitamin C and other necessary nutrients.”
Later, potatoes were blamed with encouraging indolence (“Because it was so easy to live on potatoes, the Irish did not work as hard as Petty would have liked, with the result that England was able to collect about half the taxes that Petty calculated a potato-free population would have yielded”), and tax-avoidance (as underground tubers are not so visible as grain crops).
Potatoes are great at fattening up a starving population, but “by the mid-nineteenth century slimness, rather than plumpness, had become the modern goal. The potato’s status fell accordingly.”
There are some very interesting facts and ideas in this book, but I felt that a lot was missed out, and some of what the book did contain, could have been left out. I would have liked to have had more about the ways in which potatoes were prepared and consumed around the world, and the different varieties used in different countries. I was also surprised that there was no mention of the Peruvian International Potato Centre and museum!
This is an interesting book, but I feel it could have been better.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
The book deals briefly with the potato’s origins in Southern America, and its introduction into Europe by the Spanish Conquistadors, and then to its spread around the world: potatoes “are the quintessential immigrant, arriving without fanfare, performing useful functions, and attracting little attention, at least at first”.
As liberal thought in Europe began to lean towards the idea that healthy well-fed workers are more productive and less likely to riot, “the ordinary potato had become the darling of the Enlightenment”, and the eating of potatoes was increasingly encouraged, particularly for the poor. “Potatoes are in fact the best of all the important crops at converting water into calories. The potato, in short, is an excellent way of feeding more people from the same agricultural inputs. It has further agricultural and nutritional merits, since it flourishes in a range of climates and growing conditions and is rich in vitamin C and other necessary nutrients.”
Later, potatoes were blamed with encouraging indolence (“Because it was so easy to live on potatoes, the Irish did not work as hard as Petty would have liked, with the result that England was able to collect about half the taxes that Petty calculated a potato-free population would have yielded”), and tax-avoidance (as underground tubers are not so visible as grain crops).
Potatoes are great at fattening up a starving population, but “by the mid-nineteenth century slimness, rather than plumpness, had become the modern goal. The potato’s status fell accordingly.”
There are some very interesting facts and ideas in this book, but I felt that a lot was missed out, and some of what the book did contain, could have been left out. I would have liked to have had more about the ways in which potatoes were prepared and consumed around the world, and the different varieties used in different countries. I was also surprised that there was no mention of the Peruvian International Potato Centre and museum!
This is an interesting book, but I feel it could have been better.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
May 9, 2024
If you’re interested in a book about the history of the potato this book is 5 stars! If you’re not then…. I wouldn’t recommend?
October 8, 2022
I'm a little potato. You're a little potato. The Venus of Willendorf is a little potato. This book is a little potato. Everybody likes potatoes. Potatoes are humble. I am humble. You are humble. You are a freeze-dried, nutrient-rich, hardy, versatile crop eaten by Andean peasants pre-conquest with specific goddesses attendant on you, but not the important maize goddesses, that, once trafficked around the globe, created a 25% increase in global population by being delicious. I am a freeze-dried, nutrient-rich, hardy, versatile crop eaten by Andean peasants pre-conquest, that, once trafficked around the globe, created a 25% increase in global population by being delicious. We are all little potatoes.
Potatoes are delicious. You should eat potatoes. Enlightenment philosophers want you to eat potatoes. The United Nations wants you to eat potatoes. You will never be forced to eat potatoes. Xi Jinping wants you to eat potatoes. You will choose to eat potatoes because they are delicious. The state wants you to know that potatoes are delicious. You can choose potatoes. Potatoes are delicious.
Potatoes are history. The lack of potatoes is history. Twenty percent of Ireland went dead or diaspora because of no potatoes. The court cases against peasants who wouldn't tithe potatoes are history. Your grandpa's recipe is potato history. The Columbian exchange is potato history. Potatoes are immigrants. Potatoes are a suitable food for the masses. Potatoes are more nutrient and calorie dense that most other things that grow. The importance of nutrients and caloric density are imperative to the people. The people are imperative to the state. The state creates history. Potatoes are history.
Potatato.
Potatoetoetos.
Potato.
Potatoes are delicious. You should eat potatoes. Enlightenment philosophers want you to eat potatoes. The United Nations wants you to eat potatoes. You will never be forced to eat potatoes. Xi Jinping wants you to eat potatoes. You will choose to eat potatoes because they are delicious. The state wants you to know that potatoes are delicious. You can choose potatoes. Potatoes are delicious.
Potatoes are history. The lack of potatoes is history. Twenty percent of Ireland went dead or diaspora because of no potatoes. The court cases against peasants who wouldn't tithe potatoes are history. Your grandpa's recipe is potato history. The Columbian exchange is potato history. Potatoes are immigrants. Potatoes are a suitable food for the masses. Potatoes are more nutrient and calorie dense that most other things that grow. The importance of nutrients and caloric density are imperative to the people. The people are imperative to the state. The state creates history. Potatoes are history.
Potatato.
Potatoetoetos.
Potato.
March 7, 2019
Sometimes there is much more than meets the eye with everyday objects that have become mundane to the point that we never really examine or think about them. Bloomsbury Academic's series Object Lessons is on its way to addressing that issue and Rebecca Earle's Potato does a fine job of critically looking at the potato. From its global importance as an important food crop to sustaining an ever increasing population to its role and use in changing political philosophy from earlier centuries, this book covers many interesting facets and nuances of the history of potatoes that are easily overlooked.
Due to the nature of the book, the structure is a little disjointed as there isn't much of a coherent line of narrative weaving the book together. The topics jump around quite a bit, even within chapters. Some of the topics covered also seemed a little out of place or only tangentially related to potatoes, such as some the fine art dealing with potatoes. While it wasn't a problem per se, I felt that it did take away time and space a little bit from the other topics leaving less room for some of the more important aspects of the potato.. However, overall, Ia am glad that some of the cultural aspects of the potato were included.
Part of the reason I decided to read this book is that the area I live in is known for its potatoes (pretty much one of the only things its known for) and potatoes are everywhere. I live almost within sight of a potato field and have worked for farmers that grew potatoes as a teenager. This book definitely has allowed me to look at these potatoes in a new light with a rich cultural and historical background. The book does cover some history of the potato from its original cultivation in the new world to its transmission to Europe and beyond during the Columbian Exchange. It was interesting to see how some countries readily adopted the potato crop and allowed it to become an important cultural item, such as in Ireland. One of the interesting aspects of the book that really stood out to me was some primary source material of early professional chefs describing recipes using the new ingredient of potatoes and how one should go about to the market to look for a desirable potato. Other parts of the book that I really enjoyed included the use of the potato in political and philosophical circles to empower (at least in theory) the individual in society and raise them up to a greater state than before the potato was widely grown. Also, the current usage and cultivation of potatoes around the world as a global staple crop was discussed in depth and was interesting to learn about.
Overall Potato by Rebecca Earle does a great job illuminating the secret life of potatoes and demonstrates that even the mundane food staple of the potato has a rich backstory and cultural history. The book makes you wonder about other everyday foodstuffs and mundane items and what their history might possibly be, encouraging the reader to think about the world around them. And thinking about the world around you in a critical way is always a good thing.
4 out of 5 stars.
Due to the nature of the book, the structure is a little disjointed as there isn't much of a coherent line of narrative weaving the book together. The topics jump around quite a bit, even within chapters. Some of the topics covered also seemed a little out of place or only tangentially related to potatoes, such as some the fine art dealing with potatoes. While it wasn't a problem per se, I felt that it did take away time and space a little bit from the other topics leaving less room for some of the more important aspects of the potato.. However, overall, Ia am glad that some of the cultural aspects of the potato were included.
Part of the reason I decided to read this book is that the area I live in is known for its potatoes (pretty much one of the only things its known for) and potatoes are everywhere. I live almost within sight of a potato field and have worked for farmers that grew potatoes as a teenager. This book definitely has allowed me to look at these potatoes in a new light with a rich cultural and historical background. The book does cover some history of the potato from its original cultivation in the new world to its transmission to Europe and beyond during the Columbian Exchange. It was interesting to see how some countries readily adopted the potato crop and allowed it to become an important cultural item, such as in Ireland. One of the interesting aspects of the book that really stood out to me was some primary source material of early professional chefs describing recipes using the new ingredient of potatoes and how one should go about to the market to look for a desirable potato. Other parts of the book that I really enjoyed included the use of the potato in political and philosophical circles to empower (at least in theory) the individual in society and raise them up to a greater state than before the potato was widely grown. Also, the current usage and cultivation of potatoes around the world as a global staple crop was discussed in depth and was interesting to learn about.
Overall Potato by Rebecca Earle does a great job illuminating the secret life of potatoes and demonstrates that even the mundane food staple of the potato has a rich backstory and cultural history. The book makes you wonder about other everyday foodstuffs and mundane items and what their history might possibly be, encouraging the reader to think about the world around them. And thinking about the world around you in a critical way is always a good thing.
4 out of 5 stars.
April 26, 2019
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
I wholeheartedly admit that potatoes are my favorite food, so I was very interested to read about the history behind them and the connotations that we give them. This is a short, fast read full of intriguing facts about potatoes and how this one food has traveled globally to become one of the most recognized foods in every culture.
I enjoyed that Earle featured art inspired by potatoes in this and that we got to learn a little more about how each culture views potatoes. I especially thought the history of it and the politics behind it was incredibly interesting. There are a couple of recipes included in this, but mostly, this is a book about where the potato comes from and what sort of meaning we’ve given to it within our current lives.
This would be a great coffee table book for people to peruse, or if you’re like me and are obsessed with food, this is a great nonfiction/history read.
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
I wholeheartedly admit that potatoes are my favorite food, so I was very interested to read about the history behind them and the connotations that we give them. This is a short, fast read full of intriguing facts about potatoes and how this one food has traveled globally to become one of the most recognized foods in every culture.
I enjoyed that Earle featured art inspired by potatoes in this and that we got to learn a little more about how each culture views potatoes. I especially thought the history of it and the politics behind it was incredibly interesting. There are a couple of recipes included in this, but mostly, this is a book about where the potato comes from and what sort of meaning we’ve given to it within our current lives.
This would be a great coffee table book for people to peruse, or if you’re like me and are obsessed with food, this is a great nonfiction/history read.
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
February 10, 2019
I am a big fan of the Object Lessons series, and I think potatoes are delicious any way they are cooked. This book seemed like a natural for me to fall in love with. Perhaps my expectations were a bit high. Potato is the third book I've read in the Object Lessons series, and while there is a lot to appreciate in this volume, I did not enjoy it as much as the others. I appreciate that there was a lot of history about the potato, and the cultural significance of potatoes throughout. I guess the book just wasn't organized in a way that kept me engaged. There were a lot of interesting facts, and I truly enjoyed the last chapter, where the author talks about her own family and the place that potatoes hold in the recipes shared through generations. For some reason it felt longer than the 105 pages of narrative and images. It was an enjoyable book and I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, it just fell a little below my high expectations for the Object Lessons series.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Academic for allowing me to read a free advance digital copy for review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Academic for allowing me to read a free advance digital copy for review.
September 28, 2024
Read for class….easy and fast read! Potato’s so interesting and so many histories so many cultures….i have to be honest I did skim the second half but mmm that anarchist potato section that was real good
Read
February 14, 2019Everything anyone ever wanted to know about the lowly potato. it probably has the most interesting history of any vegetable on the planet! So many varieties, grows in so many places, NOT responsible for the Irish famine (that's got human written allll over it...) but still front and center of it, it's an amazingly versatile vegetable and one I am glad to see written about. It's a relatively short book covering the ancients celebration of it right up to our our own civilizations love affair with it! It's a short read and entertaining.
I received a Kindle ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.
I received a Kindle ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.
October 29, 2018
Well... you will learn about the potato. Not a bad books, you will seriously learn stuff, but let's be honest this is for a very specific public. You have to be obsessed with the potato to read that (or you just read way too many book on anything (that's me)). If you love this vegetables and want to know more!!
July 12, 2021
I love books that bring new eyes. The text felt somewhat desultory, leaping from the concept of potatoes inspiring Irish anarchism but somehow skipping that it powered the totalitarian Incas. Similarly we learn that 'potatoes are immigrants' but not that 'cultural appropriation' was essential. The use of potato in art was much more effective -that Van Gogh painted The Potato Eaters was news to this reader. Ms. Earle covered a lot in this short text, providing some food for thought.
January 29, 2019
This is the third book that I have read in the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury the first being "Souvenir" and the second being "Luggage". After thoroughly enjoying these books I knew of the high quality of the writing and was not to be disappointed with my third read in this quirky and entertaining series. Although only around 100 or so pages in length these books do have great meaning and depth as they attempt to tackle the essence and meaning of what appears to be ordinary objects.
What I like about reading one of these books is that you never really know in what direction the author will take you, in this case one moment you may be looking at a photograph of Vincent Van Gogh's famous 1885 painting "The Potato Eaters" and the next you are presented with a poster that appeared across the UK in 2016 following the Brexit vote which simply reads "Potatoes are Immigrants" which conveys a simple but powerful truth. The treatment of the subject is very much left to the author and here Rebecca Earle uses her own family history and memories to personalise the subject.
Before reading the book I was certainly unaware of the historical, political and social economic importance of the humble potato. From its introduction into Europe in the second half of the 16th century by the Spanish we learn how it was viewed in the 17th century as a means of providing a staple diet to the expanding proletariat that would be required to meet the demands of the new industrial age.
The over dependency on this one crop would we learn lead to catastrophe during the Irish Potato Famine and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. From the poems of Seamus Heaney to the the 25,000.00 BC limestone figurine "Woman of Willendorf", from the economic doctrine of Adam Smith to a painting by Jean-Francois Millet the reader will be taken on a journey that will leave them looking at the potato in a new light. If you are looking for a structured approach then you may be disappointed but if you are happy to let the author take you on an uneven journey of her choosing then I would certainly recommend this.
What I like about reading one of these books is that you never really know in what direction the author will take you, in this case one moment you may be looking at a photograph of Vincent Van Gogh's famous 1885 painting "The Potato Eaters" and the next you are presented with a poster that appeared across the UK in 2016 following the Brexit vote which simply reads "Potatoes are Immigrants" which conveys a simple but powerful truth. The treatment of the subject is very much left to the author and here Rebecca Earle uses her own family history and memories to personalise the subject.
Before reading the book I was certainly unaware of the historical, political and social economic importance of the humble potato. From its introduction into Europe in the second half of the 16th century by the Spanish we learn how it was viewed in the 17th century as a means of providing a staple diet to the expanding proletariat that would be required to meet the demands of the new industrial age.
The over dependency on this one crop would we learn lead to catastrophe during the Irish Potato Famine and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. From the poems of Seamus Heaney to the the 25,000.00 BC limestone figurine "Woman of Willendorf", from the economic doctrine of Adam Smith to a painting by Jean-Francois Millet the reader will be taken on a journey that will leave them looking at the potato in a new light. If you are looking for a structured approach then you may be disappointed but if you are happy to let the author take you on an uneven journey of her choosing then I would certainly recommend this.
August 16, 2022
who would have thought that i would actually read about potatoes one day??????
i honestly love potatoes sO MUCH so this was a fascinating read lmaooo. love me some potato facts 🥔💚🥔💚🥔💚
this was a relatively short read ((read in one sitting)) but i wished it includes more fun facts other than historical ones - its too much for my poor brain 🤣 but i particularly enjoyed knowing more about art inspired by potatoes!!
so interesting to hear about the object lessons series - short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. 💫 will get on others slowly in between breaks 📖
i honestly love potatoes sO MUCH so this was a fascinating read lmaooo. love me some potato facts 🥔💚🥔💚🥔💚
this was a relatively short read ((read in one sitting)) but i wished it includes more fun facts other than historical ones - its too much for my poor brain 🤣 but i particularly enjoyed knowing more about art inspired by potatoes!!
so interesting to hear about the object lessons series - short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. 💫 will get on others slowly in between breaks 📖
March 21, 2019
Compared with most volumes in Bloomsbury’s generally excellent ‘Object Lessons’ series Rebecca Earle’s ‘Potato’ appears thin in both text and argument.
In the Acknowledgements Earle expresses the view that “Potatoes provide a way for us to speak about ourselves” and this she certainly does, with the ‘Family histories’ section of the book, written with her sister Susan and discussing, inter alia, family recipes for potato noodles and potato rolls, being allotted considerably more space than the discussion of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849.
The author shows how the potato has conquered the world since the Spanish conquered the Americas and along the way raises some important questions, such as the balance to be struck between the individual and the state in making decisions about healthy eating. Unfortunately, however, she also manages to contradict herself.
Thus when discussing the Great Famine, the rural Irish dependence upon the potato is represented as “an affront to modern capitalist practice” in the eyes of the British government, or at least those of Charles Trevelyan, the “chief administrator at the Treasury in London”, yet later in the book when Earle discusses the Captain Swing riots of agricultural labourers in England in 1830 the protesters’ slogan ‘We will not live upon potatoes’ is taken to demonstrate the fact that that upheaval “was essentially a protest against the transformation of English agriculture into a fully capitalist system”.
Thus in Chapter 1 the “collapse of the potato economy” in Ireland is wished for by the authorities as a means of propelling “Irish smallholders … into the ranks of the proletariat” but in Chapter 5 the potato is represented as having “been enlisted in the campaign of capitalism” as part of the process whereby England’s rural labourers had been proletarianised. Earle can’t really have it both ways, with the potato both an obstacle to the development of capitalism and a sign of capitalist development.
However good the family potato recipes may be I’m afraid they can’t compensate for this kind of half-baked mess.
In the Acknowledgements Earle expresses the view that “Potatoes provide a way for us to speak about ourselves” and this she certainly does, with the ‘Family histories’ section of the book, written with her sister Susan and discussing, inter alia, family recipes for potato noodles and potato rolls, being allotted considerably more space than the discussion of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849.
The author shows how the potato has conquered the world since the Spanish conquered the Americas and along the way raises some important questions, such as the balance to be struck between the individual and the state in making decisions about healthy eating. Unfortunately, however, she also manages to contradict herself.
Thus when discussing the Great Famine, the rural Irish dependence upon the potato is represented as “an affront to modern capitalist practice” in the eyes of the British government, or at least those of Charles Trevelyan, the “chief administrator at the Treasury in London”, yet later in the book when Earle discusses the Captain Swing riots of agricultural labourers in England in 1830 the protesters’ slogan ‘We will not live upon potatoes’ is taken to demonstrate the fact that that upheaval “was essentially a protest against the transformation of English agriculture into a fully capitalist system”.
Thus in Chapter 1 the “collapse of the potato economy” in Ireland is wished for by the authorities as a means of propelling “Irish smallholders … into the ranks of the proletariat” but in Chapter 5 the potato is represented as having “been enlisted in the campaign of capitalism” as part of the process whereby England’s rural labourers had been proletarianised. Earle can’t really have it both ways, with the potato both an obstacle to the development of capitalism and a sign of capitalist development.
However good the family potato recipes may be I’m afraid they can’t compensate for this kind of half-baked mess.
November 11, 2018
Three and a half stars.
It's official, for even one of the review quotes in these pages says this series is "wonderfully" uneven in quality. This, however, is one nearer the middle, for the simple reason it itself is "wonderfully" uneven. From cultural thinking of the potato as a semi-divine entity, and the alternative that it is a bog-standard spud for bog-standard people, to the science that makes it one of the better foodstuffs, to the poverty when monocultures of it die out, to how the potato even helped shape civilisation (or at least did in opposite ways to grains) – these pages convey a heck of a lot about something you wouldn't normally expect to get a whole non-fiction book dedicated to. Which encapsulates the series at its best. But then the writing turns into too hardcore sociology and philosophy, then meanders into family memoir – luckily enough there isn't too much of that, though, and the book has to be called a success. I'm surprised how the whole thing never gets as far as the crisp (potato chip) – that must of course be the sequel...
It's official, for even one of the review quotes in these pages says this series is "wonderfully" uneven in quality. This, however, is one nearer the middle, for the simple reason it itself is "wonderfully" uneven. From cultural thinking of the potato as a semi-divine entity, and the alternative that it is a bog-standard spud for bog-standard people, to the science that makes it one of the better foodstuffs, to the poverty when monocultures of it die out, to how the potato even helped shape civilisation (or at least did in opposite ways to grains) – these pages convey a heck of a lot about something you wouldn't normally expect to get a whole non-fiction book dedicated to. Which encapsulates the series at its best. But then the writing turns into too hardcore sociology and philosophy, then meanders into family memoir – luckily enough there isn't too much of that, though, and the book has to be called a success. I'm surprised how the whole thing never gets as far as the crisp (potato chip) – that must of course be the sequel...
November 11, 2021
(Note: I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
"Potato" is not the mere micro-history that I assumed it would be. This book ends up going through an unexpected but fascinating journey through many of the diverse collection of identities that the potato has held in both past and present - an unassuming new food source that almost near-silently worked its way through the Colombian Exchange and into the gardens of peasants, a hardy stable food capable of bringing joy alongside nourishment, a potential keystone in national food security, just to name several. This is an unexpectedly packed little work that will hold onto your attention and make you far more intrigued by and appreciative of its humble tuber subject matter than you'd think was ever possible, (and can successfully do this all in the space of a lazy afternoon).
"Potato" is not the mere micro-history that I assumed it would be. This book ends up going through an unexpected but fascinating journey through many of the diverse collection of identities that the potato has held in both past and present - an unassuming new food source that almost near-silently worked its way through the Colombian Exchange and into the gardens of peasants, a hardy stable food capable of bringing joy alongside nourishment, a potential keystone in national food security, just to name several. This is an unexpectedly packed little work that will hold onto your attention and make you far more intrigued by and appreciative of its humble tuber subject matter than you'd think was ever possible, (and can successfully do this all in the space of a lazy afternoon).
July 23, 2020
I would not normally read a book about the potato, but this was written by a friend.
Friendship aside, it's a fine book - elegant, witty, wide-ranging historically and geographically, touching on language, myth, culture, diet and nutrition, and the relationship between potato cultivation and state development. The last of these is dealt with in a series of fascinating sections, including one on the role of the potato in the modern Chinese state and economy. All this in a hundred pages, with a final section of personal memoir about the author's family and the place of the potato in it.
Friendship aside, it's a fine book - elegant, witty, wide-ranging historically and geographically, touching on language, myth, culture, diet and nutrition, and the relationship between potato cultivation and state development. The last of these is dealt with in a series of fascinating sections, including one on the role of the potato in the modern Chinese state and economy. All this in a hundred pages, with a final section of personal memoir about the author's family and the place of the potato in it.
February 19, 2019
Title: Potato
Author: Rebecca Earle
Genre: Nonfiction, Object Lesson, Essay, History, Food,
Plot: Potatoes are one of the four biggest global crops and make up the base for a lot of America's favorite foods. Mashed potatoes at Grandma's for the holidays, French fries smothered in ketchup or lightly salted on a summer's evening, Aunt June's famous potato salad with a hint of bacon, a perfectly baked potato with a dollop of sour cream or scalloped potatoes dripping in butter. Potatoes are the starchy goodness that make up the bulk of our favorite comfort foods. But they are more than that. There are red potatoes, gold potatoes, white potatoes, purple potatoes, black potatoes, finger potatoes and sweet potatoes all with their own unique tastes, textures and flavors. Some are great for boiling while others do better baked.
We know how Ireland has a long history with potatoes but some of us might not know that potatoes originated in South and Central America. They were the food of the Incas till the Americas were discovered and potatoes sailed across the sea. The varieties of potatoes grown by the ancient Incas are mind-boggling and all of them sound delicious.
Likes/Dislikes: I love potatoes. I love growing them and eating them and reading about them. An object lesson on them was surprising and not necessarily something I have ever read before or would likely pick up. But since I like potatoes, I gave it a shot and really enjoyed it. I have a short attention span however so I had to read it in chunks but that's okay, it gives me a good break from everything else going on in my reading life. I did really want more recipes though.
Rating: G-all ages, 14 and up mainly for reading level.
Date Review Written: February 19th, 2019
I received a copy of this book courtesy of Netgalley for my honest opinion. I wasn't required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed in the above review are my own.
Author: Rebecca Earle
Genre: Nonfiction, Object Lesson, Essay, History, Food,
Plot: Potatoes are one of the four biggest global crops and make up the base for a lot of America's favorite foods. Mashed potatoes at Grandma's for the holidays, French fries smothered in ketchup or lightly salted on a summer's evening, Aunt June's famous potato salad with a hint of bacon, a perfectly baked potato with a dollop of sour cream or scalloped potatoes dripping in butter. Potatoes are the starchy goodness that make up the bulk of our favorite comfort foods. But they are more than that. There are red potatoes, gold potatoes, white potatoes, purple potatoes, black potatoes, finger potatoes and sweet potatoes all with their own unique tastes, textures and flavors. Some are great for boiling while others do better baked.
We know how Ireland has a long history with potatoes but some of us might not know that potatoes originated in South and Central America. They were the food of the Incas till the Americas were discovered and potatoes sailed across the sea. The varieties of potatoes grown by the ancient Incas are mind-boggling and all of them sound delicious.
Likes/Dislikes: I love potatoes. I love growing them and eating them and reading about them. An object lesson on them was surprising and not necessarily something I have ever read before or would likely pick up. But since I like potatoes, I gave it a shot and really enjoyed it. I have a short attention span however so I had to read it in chunks but that's okay, it gives me a good break from everything else going on in my reading life. I did really want more recipes though.
Rating: G-all ages, 14 and up mainly for reading level.
Date Review Written: February 19th, 2019
I received a copy of this book courtesy of Netgalley for my honest opinion. I wasn't required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed in the above review are my own.
March 13, 2020
Didn’t cover as much as I had hoped. Focused on art history, “ism” history, and dull personal family history. There is so much more to say about potatoes! All the world eats potatoes. They unite us. “May the Lord lay me down like a stone, and raise me up like a loaf.” That’s the potato prayer from War and Peace!
I like how she showed that European peasants didn’t need anyone to tell them to plant potatoes, they saw the value and adapted. I had never thought about the tension we have in the liberal west where, what I eat is my business but, what the nation eats is also my business.
What I learned: Potatoes are also native to North America. German has dozens of regional names for potatoes. My favorite is “Erdapfel.” (Grompers is a close second) The Incan name for potato was “papa” and the goddess of “papas” is Axomama. The Inca freeze dried and ground up potatoes, so instant mashed potatoes is thousands of years old! The Dutch word for potato masher is aardapplestamper!!!
A song about a book is an example of ekphrasis.
I like how she showed that European peasants didn’t need anyone to tell them to plant potatoes, they saw the value and adapted. I had never thought about the tension we have in the liberal west where, what I eat is my business but, what the nation eats is also my business.
What I learned: Potatoes are also native to North America. German has dozens of regional names for potatoes. My favorite is “Erdapfel.” (Grompers is a close second) The Incan name for potato was “papa” and the goddess of “papas” is Axomama. The Inca freeze dried and ground up potatoes, so instant mashed potatoes is thousands of years old! The Dutch word for potato masher is aardapplestamper!!!
A song about a book is an example of ekphrasis.
November 29, 2018
This book was received as an ARC from Bloomsbury Academic in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
What really attracted me to this book was the simplicity of the cover just being the humble potato. The brilliant mind of Rebecca Earle described the potato like it was the meaning of life and she expressed how just a simple vegetable has many meanings to many people and is not just for eating. I also was really curious when I found out that this was a series and can't wait to see what concepts Earle describes throughout the series on my favorite vegetable. Brilliantly written and beautifully executed.
We will definitely consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.
What really attracted me to this book was the simplicity of the cover just being the humble potato. The brilliant mind of Rebecca Earle described the potato like it was the meaning of life and she expressed how just a simple vegetable has many meanings to many people and is not just for eating. I also was really curious when I found out that this was a series and can't wait to see what concepts Earle describes throughout the series on my favorite vegetable. Brilliantly written and beautifully executed.
We will definitely consider adding this title to our Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.
January 2, 2025
In Rebecca Earle's Potato, the beloved root vegetable is a muse for artists and poets, a thorn in the side of capitalist hierarchy, the poster child of early public health campaigns, a tax evader, and according to the FAO, the ideal crop to provide food security in the developing world. Starting from their alleged birthplace in the South American Andes, the book recounts how potatoes came to be one of the most consumed crops worldwide.
I randomly picked this for a StoryGraph challenge. Otherwise, I don't think that I could have had the heart to get through it. I couldn't recognise any order or structure; the text seemed to oscillate randomly between several unrelated subjects including but not limited to history, art, politics, and the author's family legacy. This is just my opinion, but I would have liked it more had it stuck exclusively to the historical and social aspects.
I randomly picked this for a StoryGraph challenge. Otherwise, I don't think that I could have had the heart to get through it. I couldn't recognise any order or structure; the text seemed to oscillate randomly between several unrelated subjects including but not limited to history, art, politics, and the author's family legacy. This is just my opinion, but I would have liked it more had it stuck exclusively to the historical and social aspects.
February 7, 2019
Who knew there was so much history behind the potato? I certainly didn't, but I've found a new appreciation for one of my favorite foods.
I'm going to be completely honest, I picked up this book thinking that it was going to be the most boring thing I've ever laid my eyes upon. I was pleasantly surprised when this book fascinated me and pulled me in quickly and held my attention until the very end. I'm a huge history nerd, so learning about the history surrounding the potato was right up my alley. I was particularly fascinated to learn that Native Americans had been making essentially instant mashed potatoes for pretty much forever.
I'm going to be completely honest, I picked up this book thinking that it was going to be the most boring thing I've ever laid my eyes upon. I was pleasantly surprised when this book fascinated me and pulled me in quickly and held my attention until the very end. I'm a huge history nerd, so learning about the history surrounding the potato was right up my alley. I was particularly fascinated to learn that Native Americans had been making essentially instant mashed potatoes for pretty much forever.
November 13, 2018
This book is a must read for all potato lovers out there.
The book gives you a quick history lesson starting at where the potato came from up to what they mean to us, civilization, now. And of course, its significance and role at many points throughout that history.
It was an entertaining and very informative book to read. I am not much for history books but this one was interesting enough and I love the main subject, so it was an easy and fast read.
I will be recommending this book to all my fellow potato lovers.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The book gives you a quick history lesson starting at where the potato came from up to what they mean to us, civilization, now. And of course, its significance and role at many points throughout that history.
It was an entertaining and very informative book to read. I am not much for history books but this one was interesting enough and I love the main subject, so it was an easy and fast read.
I will be recommending this book to all my fellow potato lovers.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
August 5, 2019
Another intriguing and informative volume in the wonderful Object Lessons series, this time a comprehensive exploration of the potato - its origins, its spread around the world, and its importance and symbolism. Not to mention a few historical recipes and a very personal view of the potato in the last chapter. Made me far more aware of the significance of the potato, for sure, and I learnt many useful facts and figures – not least that China is the biggest producer. Good reading indeed.
March 21, 2023
I read this book as a reference for writing an English paper on the cultural history of the potato. It was all I could’ve asked for, but it did have a couple errors in it. Other than that, it’s an amazing resource. It really immerses you into the world of potatoes and its affects on society. Be aware if you’re looking for a book on the potato industry or potato biology, you won’t find much in here. But it is absolutely worth reading if you’re interested in the cultural aspects of the potato.
March 28, 2020
This is a delightful little microhistory about one of my all-time favorite foods. I loved tracing the potato from its Andean roots to its dominance as one of the world’s most eaten foods. Sprinkled throughout its pages are images of potato artwork through the ages, ads for potato-related goods, and even a couple heirloom potato recipes.
December 9, 2018
My favorite kind of history book—and it doesn't hurt that I'm a sucker for food history. Delves into poetry, art, politics, labor, and philosophy, all connected by the potato. I learned several fascinating and provoking things. I'll be looking for more books in this series (Object Lessons).
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