[Sugar has always driven world history! ] The definitive edition that most completely depicts the history of sugar, which fascinates people but is also a double-edged sword for humanity and the environment. “Sugar and humanity”
2000 Complete History”, released on September 12th.
*Kawade Shobo Shinsha*
Press release: September 12, 2024
**
[Sugar has always driven world history! ] The definitive edition that most completely depicts the history of sugar, which fascinates people but is also a double-edged sword for humanity and the environment. “Sugar and humanity”
2000 Complete History”, released on September 12th.
*From the role that sugar has played in world history to the impact it has had on people’s health and the environment, it will be discussed from a truly global perspective, from Asia, Europe and the Americas, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. *
* Kawade Shobo Shinsha Co., Ltd. (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo/Representative Director Yu Onodera) is a
2000 Complete History” (written by Urwe Bosma, translated by Hidemi Yoshimine) will be released on September 12, 2024. *
This is an epoch-making book that unravels the history of sugar, comprehensively covering all kinds of topics such as sugar-related manufacturing technology, the food industry, the health industry, and medicine, and summarizing it from a global perspective.
Sugar has had a huge impact on human history. This book explores the history of sugar itself, the history of the development of sugar manufacturing technology, its influence on politics, the sugar bourgeoisie born from plantations, and the powerful sugar capitalism dominated by sugar companies. We will also uncover the negative aspects behind this, such as human exploitation, racism, obesity, and environmental destruction.
Sugar is a sweet food that everyone knows, likes, and consumes in some way every day. By tracing its history, you can enjoy an amazing story of global scale.
* ■Sugar reflects world history! *
The history of sugar, which spans more than 2000 years, began in northern India. The history of granulated sugar, which is particulate sugar, is about 2,500 years at most, and the history of white crystalline sugar is even shorter, about 1,500 years. Initially considered a luxury and a symbol of power and wealth, sugar was used for aristocratic banquets and ceremonies, or for medicine. Since then, sugar manufacturing technology has developed as sugar spread around the world, and about 700 years have passed since sugar began to be used in cuisines around the world. It is used in so many dishes and drinks that there are now almost no processed foods that do not contain sugar.
Sugarcane, one of the raw materials for sugar, grows in a hot and humid climate, making it difficult to grow in Europe for a long time. Sugar production technology spread from India to East Asia and Southeast Asia, and from the Middle East to Egypt and the
Mediterranean coast. Among them, high-quality sugar was produced in Asia and flowed over land and sea to the European market.
After the Age of Exploration, European capital increased sugar production in colonies and new continents around the world. They developed large-scale sugar plantations, which incorporated slavery and forced labor. It is said that sugar plantations were the harshest and most dangerous plantations, even more so than those for tobacco, cotton, or coffee, with an annual mortality rate of 4 to 6 percent for workers at the end of the 18th century. Although it led to the promotion of industry, it widened the wealth gap between capitalists and workers, encouraging the creation of giant corporations on the one hand, and promoting poverty through exploitation on the other. In addition, sugar trade and tariffs are influenced by each country’s national policies and global circumstances, and can sometimes lead to conflict and conflict between countries.
Now, the combination of expanding global capitalism and increasingly powerful states has made sugar an overproduced and artificially cheap commodity, used in large quantities in industrially produced foods and beverages. As a result, large-scale sugar plantations are causing enormous environmental damage. In addition, for us humans, excessive intake of sugar is causing the incidence of obesity and diabetes to rise at an alarming rate because our body’s metabolism cannot keep up. In 1999, the World Health Organization declared obesity a pandemic.
In this way, for us humans, sugar is an inseparable part of
civilization and culture, and is a miraculous food that has greatly contributed to the development of industries and nations, and to the creation of the modern global world. On the other hand, it also brings negative aspects, negative impacts on the earth and humans, and serious human rights issues. Sugar is a relatively recent phenomenon in the long history of humankind, and humans have no way of
controlling it.
The history of sugar strongly reflects the ups and downs of world history.
* ■From the table of contents *
Introduction
*Chapter 1: The world of sugar in Asia*
India: This is where it all began… / China’s sugar and trade / China’s sugar in Southeast Asia / Asia’s sugar crosses the ocean *Chapter 2 Sugar going west*
Afterglow of the Mediterranean / From medicine to delicacy / Sugar in European cities and industry
*Chapter 3 War and Slavery*
The Netherlands aims to monopolize sugar in Europe / England and France, their respective sugar revolutions / Slaves / Planters / European profits from sugar / Saint-Domingue, British India, and the prohibition of the slave trade
*Chapter 4 Science and Steam*
Science and tropical agriculture / Botany / Academic and economic organizations / The arrival of the steam engine / Beet sugar *Chapter 5 Nation and Industry*
Vacuum Cauldron / Saint-Simonism and Abolitionism / Intermediate Technology / Factories, Engineers, and Capitalists / Plantation Financing / New Sugar Capitalism and Old Monarchy
*Chapter 6 Slavery that will never go away*
Amelioration and resistance / From amelioration to the abolition of slavery / India’s sugar, rapid growth and collapse of industrial production / Britain searches for sugar around the world / Slavery continues – Cuba, Brazil, Louisiana / Indentured labor on sugar plantations Workers / Javanese forced cultivation system (1830-70s) / Javanese agricultural involution / Industrialization and forced labor *Chapter 7 Sugarcane of Crisis and Miracle*
Concentration and cartelization / Restoration of the sugar bourgeoisie in the colonies / Sugar from Java for Asia / Sugarcane and diseases spreading around the world / Miracle sugarcane POJ2878
*Chapter 8 Sugar in the world, national identity*
Sugar and Republicanism/Louisiana: Rebuilding the plantation/Cultural background and whiteness/Peasant sugar that persists in Latin America/Evolution of sugar produced by Indian farmers
*Chapter 9 America’s Sugar Kingdom*
Trusts / The Sorghum Boom / Beet Sugar / Trusts, American Finance, and Manuel Rionda / Conquests in the Caribbean / Florida becomes the nation’s sugarcane frontier
*Chapter 10 Increasing protectionism*
Brussels Treaty (1902) / Clash of major sugar companies / Sugar hidden behind the tariff wall / Sugar policy of the British Empire
*Chapter 11 Proletariat*
Racism in sugar beet fields in the United States and Germany / Resistance movements by workers in Hawaii and California / Communism and international solidarity among workers / Birth of development economics
*Chapter 12: Failure of decolonization*
Sugar Beyond Colonialism: Producers’ Union / Winners and Losers of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement / Two Sugar Empires Remaining / High-fructose sugar and its impact
*Chapter 13 Corporate Sugar*
The plight of sugarcane cutters/The end of the sugar bourgeoisie? /Giant sugar companies released from the yoke/Totalitarian capitalism or green capitalism?
*Chapter 14 Sweeter than nature*
How the Banting Diet was destroyed / Food standards and mass consumption / The fight against obesity / Guidelines for sugar intake / Corporate sweetener business
* *With a huge index of over 1000 items *
* ■Author introduction *
*Ulbe Bosma*
In 1995, he received a PhD in history from Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is a senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), professor of International Comparative Social History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. . His specialty is the history of labor and commodity production, particularly sugar and international labor migration. 『The
Making of a Periphery”, “The Sugar Plantation in India and
He has also written about development economics and sugar plantations in India and Indonesia, including “Indonesia.”
* ■Translator introduction *
* Hidemi Yoshimine* (Yoshimine Hidemi)
Translator. Graduated from San Jose State University, Department of Sociology, Department of History. Translated books include J. Maresic’s “Why We Burn Out” and R. Dunbar’s “Why We Burn Out”. Will they make friends?”, J. Pearce/M. Bekoff, “A World Only for Dogs: The Life of Dogs After Humans Are No Longer”, S. May, “ “The World of Cute: The Power of Cute,” R. Horton’s “Why We Couldn’t Stop the Coronavirus,” and many more.
* ■Bibliographic information *
Book title: *Sugar and humanity*
Subtitle: Complete history of 2000
Author: Urve Bosma
Translator: Hidemi Yoshimine
Specifications: 46 format / hardcover / 520 pages
Release date: September 12, 2024
List price including tax: 4,290 yen (3,900 yen)
ISBN: 978-4-309-22931-7
Binding: Satoshi Iwase
https://www.kawade.co.jp/np/isbn/9784309229317/
Publisher: Kawade Shobo Shinsha