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Sweetness and Power
- The Place of Sugar in Modern History
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
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Sweetness and Power
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Publisher's summary
In this eye-opening study, Sidney W. Mintz shows how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life and how it changed the history of capitalism and industry. He discusses the production and consumption of sugar and reveals how closely interwoven sugar's origins are as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies, with its use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat. Finally, he considers how sugar has altered work patterns, eating habits, and our diet in modern times.
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Everything you need to know about coffee
- By FW1978 on 11-03-18
By: Robert W. Thurston, and others
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An Edible History of Humanity
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 558
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 455
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Story4 out of 5 stars 455
Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes---caused, enabled, or influenced by food---has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Flawed, but worthwhile
- By Ary Shalizi on 12-28-17
By: Tom Standage
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The Taste of Empire
- How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
- By: Lizzie Collingham
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through 20 meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Overall really interesting and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 01-01-21
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Coffeeland
- One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug
- By: Augustine Sedgewick
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 101
Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world - one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism, the leading source of the world's most popular drug, and perhaps the most widespread word on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 500-year transformation from a mysterious Muslim ritual into an everyday necessity.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Unfortunately
- By Brian on 06-06-20
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The Way We Eat Now
- How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World
- By: Bee Wilson
- Narrated by: Bee Wilson
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion? Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits. Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Slow, doesn't get to the point-20% info, 80% fluff
- By DrSarah on 11-13-19
By: Bee Wilson
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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
- By: Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 523
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 443
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Story5 out of 5 stars 434
Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the West and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the repercussions of European colonialism in Africa remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Superb must read for everyone
- By Joy on 04-16-19
By: Walter Rodney, and others
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A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
- A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
- By: Raj Patel, Jason W. Moore
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A remarkable exposé & synthesis of the Ponzi scheme that capitalism is and always has been.
- By Scott on 02-10-18
By: Raj Patel, and others
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The United States of Beer
- A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Huckelbridge shows how beer has evolved along with the country - from a local and regional product (once upon a time, every American city had its own brewery and iconic beer brand) to the rise of global megabrands, like Budweiser and Miller, that are synonymous with US capitalism. We learn of George Washington's failed attempt to brew beer at Mount Vernon with molasses instead of barley and of the 19th-century "beer barons", like Captain Frederick Pabst, Adolphus Busch, and Joseph Schlitz.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History Humanized
- By Dave on 06-25-16
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Empire of Things
- How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First
- By: Frank Trentmann
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 33 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An exhaustive attempt to get the story right
- By John on 03-09-16
By: Frank Trentmann
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The Taste of Conquest
- The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice
- By: Michael Krondl
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
In this engaging, anecdotal history of food, world conquest, and desire, a chef-turned-journalist tells the story of three legendary cities, Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam, that transformed the globe in the quest for spice.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not that bad.
- By EmperorTab on 10-19-08
By: Michael Krondl
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Indian Givers
- How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 434
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 346
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 348
After 500 years, the world's huge debt to the wisdom of the Indians of the Americas has finally been explored in all its vivid drama by anthropologist Jack Weatherford. He traces the crucial contributions made by the Indians to our federal system of government, our democratic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology, and in this astonishing, ground-breaking book takes a giant step toward recovering a true American history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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All things Jack Weatherford
- By Robert on 06-03-10
By: Jack Weatherford
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
- Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
- By: David S. Landes
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes' acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A detailed explanation
- By Kaarlis on 12-07-21
By: David S. Landes
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The Conquest of Bread
- By: Pyotr Kropotkin
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
In The Conquest of Bread, first published in 1892, Kropotkin set out his ideas on how his heightened idealism could work. It was all the more extraordinary because he was born into an aristocratic land-owning family - with some 1,200 male serfs - though from his student years his liberal views and his fixation on the need for social change saw him take a revolutionary path. This led rapidly to decades of exile. It is a passionate, even a fierce polemic for dramatic social change.
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5 out of 5 stars
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“All is for All”
- By Gabriel on 01-02-19
By: Pyotr Kropotkin
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Milk!
- A 10,000-Year Food Fracas
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 198
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4 out of 5 stars 168
Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the best-selling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout. According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narration nearly kills Kurlansky
- By Scarlatti's Muse on 05-15-18
By: Mark Kurlansky
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The Conquest of Bread
- By: Peter Kropotkin
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story5 out of 5 stars 28
Originally written in French, The Conquest of Bread first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder. In the work, Kropotkin points out what he considers to be the defects of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism and why he believes they thrive on and maintain poverty and scarcity.
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3 out of 5 stars
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If we were all perfect. That's a big if.
- By DesmoProfundis on 06-07-21
By: Peter Kropotkin
What listeners say about Sweetness and Power
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- kstar
- 02-16-21
Should be required reading/listening
This was history, self-help, economics, a diet guide, a critique of capitalism, an examination of our relationships to time, a survey of globalization....this should be read as widely as the Bible
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eileen Leeds
- 01-29-23
Sugar is the hook in your nose
If you thought that you operated independently of any influence upon you, think again. How could a cheap and cheerful crystalline substance convince you to take bitter medicines or allow your teeth to be damaged without shame on your part? Wish we had an update from Mr. Mintz for the 2020s+. Really - one of my all time favorite books. Reading the print edition will fill you in a bit more with pictures that are not available by audio. I really learned so much from Mr. Mintz, and am grateful.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hossein Kamaly
- 03-08-23
Brilliant
The depth of analysis is amazing and the writing is clear and engaging. Highly recommended.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Acteon
- 11-14-19
Dated but still worthwhile
The subject is of enormous interest, and while I am glad I listened to the book for the information it contains, it seems dated and less than satisfying. I started reading books on history in the 1960s and have been struck in recent years by how most books written before about 2000 have become dated even if that doesn't mean they are no longer worth reading. Knowledge and understanding have grown so much in the last two decades that books often need a serious update, and this one is a good example.
The story of sugar since 1985 could well provide material for another book. Recent books such as those by Gary Taubes and Robert Lustig have put sugar in a new perspective. If you've read these, Sweetness and Power is an interesting and useful complement, but even as historic-anthropological analysis, it seems incomplete. For instance, there is not very much on labor relations and what sugar production meant for laborers as production evolved in the course of time.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- moses
- 10-18-23
This is dry a f
This is dry a f if you don’t gotta read it for a class pass on this
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