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Sugar: The World Corrupted: From Slavery to Obesity Hardcover – April 3, 2018

by James Walvin (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 153 ratings
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The modern successor to Sweetness and Power, James Walvin’s Sugar is a rich and engaging work on a topic that continues to change our world.

How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic?

Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the domain of the rich. But with the rise of the sugar colonies in the New World over the following century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous and an everyday necessity. Less than fifty years ago, few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem.  And yet today, sugar is regularly denounced as a dangerous addiction, on a par with tobacco. While sugar consumption remains higher than ever―in some countries as high as 100lbs per head per year―some advertisements even proudly proclaim that their product contains no sugar.

How did sugar grow from prize to pariah? Acclaimed historian James Walvin looks at the history of our collective sweet tooth, beginning with the sugar grown by enslaved people who had been uprooted and shipped vast distances to undertake the grueling labor on plantations.  The combination of sugar and slavery would transform the tastes of the Western world.

Masterfully insightful and probing, James Walvin reveals the relationship between society and sweetness over the past two centuries―and how it explains our conflicted relationship with sugar today.  

8 pages of B&W photographs
Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pegasus Books
  4. Publication date
    April 3, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6.4 x 1.3 x 9.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1681776774
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1681776774
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A roller-coaster ride through 500 years of history. Sugar is an entertaining, informative and utterly depressing global history of an important commodity. By alerting readers to the ways that modernity’s very origins are entangled with a seemingly benign and delicious substance, Sugar raises fundamental questions about our world.”
- New York Times Book Review

“Walvin’s tone is brisk and informative, particularly in chapters on the gradual intertwining of sugar and sociability.”
- Publishers Weekly

“Walvin provides a concise and engaging overview of the history of sugar, exploring its societal and environmental impact from its presence in the human diet dating back millennia to its substantial role in the global obesity crisis.”
- Library Journal

“This thoroughly researched exploration of a cherished commodity begins with sugar’s roots in the Middle East and chronicles its dissemination via trade and colonialism. Walvin’s expertise shines in his handling of the sugar economy.”
- Booklist

“There’s something crazy about the modern relationship with sugar. We demonize it, and yet we can’t seem to stop gorging on it. Few plants can have caused more human misery than sugar cane, first through slavery and now through obesity, tooth decay and Type 2 diabetes. Yet when we see something sugary―a ball of cotton candy, some salted-caramel ice cream, a chocolate fudge cake―most of us still react only with joy, as if greeting a dear old friend. Despite everything we now know about the harm caused by sugar―and other modern sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup―it never stops being sweet. A brilliant and thought-provoking history of sugar and its ironies. Mr. Walvin writes with fresh and righteous shock.”
- Bee Wilson, The Wall Street Journal

“Shocking and revelatory. No other product has so changed the world, and no other book reveals the scale of its impact.”
- David Olusoga, author of The Kaiser’s Holocaust and host of the BBC's "Civilization"

About the Author

James Walvin is the author of several books on slavery and modern social history, including Crossings and A Jamaican Plantation. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2008 was awarded an OBE for services to scholarship. He lives in England.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books (April 3, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681776774
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681776774
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.3 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 153 ratings

About the author

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James Walvin

James Walvin

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Born in Manchester England in 1942, James Walvin spent his career as an academic historian at the University of York. He was a pioneer of the history of Britain's black community; his book Back and White, won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for 1974. He subsequently helped to establish the importance of the British involvement with Atlantic slavery. He was, in addition, the first historian to write a serious study of the history of British football. His book The People's Game, stayed in print for forty years. His recent books on slavery have been widely praised for their combination of scholarly detail while being accessible and readable. His most recent book, A World Transformed. Slavery in the Americas and the Origins of Global Power, has received praise for its sweep, and its compelling argument. His work has also been marked by a firm commitment to public history and he has been an active broadcaster and advisor in numerous public exhibitions and programmes. Walvin was awarded an O.B.E.in 2008 for his services to scholarship.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
153 global ratings
Great subject but not properly written.
2 Stars
Great subject but not properly written.
I enjoyed the first few chapters. But it seems like the author likes to repeat himself every chapter. I had to push myself reading the second half of the book.
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Sugar, Slavery, and Empire Capitalism
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
A concise and well-written book relating the link between slavery and the widespread consumption of sugar. Slavery today reaches into most households through the disastrous health effects of sugar consumption, and the big pharma, big medicine, and big food efforts to keep us addicted and enslaved.
4 people found this helpful
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Roy E.
4.0 out of 5 stars Great job in examining the power of sugarcane
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
A good historical perspective
One person found this helpful
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BH
5.0 out of 5 stars Read it and weep
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2018
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A truly mind opening expose of the history of sugar, its agricultural beginnings and cultural foundation and absolute dependence on and perpetuation of slavery. You will never look at a chocolate bar the same way again.
15 people found this helpful
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happypatti
3.0 out of 5 stars Could use a good edit
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018
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Excessively wordy. Points after the history section are well known already, great history section was entirely well done in its detail.
5 people found this helpful
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vera maura fernandes de lima
5.0 out of 5 stars The author is little repetitive of slavery consequences and imorality
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
I was surprised about how much I learned, I though I knew a little bit about the subject, buy my ignorance was severe. Kudos to the author
5 people found this helpful
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Julie Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars It all started here
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2019
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I had no idea that sugar plantations were the precursor to the slave plantations in the United States.
2 people found this helpful
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Kenneth Whitmore
2.0 out of 5 stars Great subject but not properly written.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the first few chapters. But it seems like the author likes to repeat himself every chapter. I had to push myself reading the second half of the book.
Customer image
Kenneth Whitmore
2.0 out of 5 stars Great subject but not properly written.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2020
I enjoyed the first few chapters. But it seems like the author likes to repeat himself every chapter. I had to push myself reading the second half of the book.
Images in this review
Customer image
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3 people found this helpful
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Clare O'Beara
4.0 out of 5 stars Sugar
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2019
This book about sugar is not really about sugar; it should be called, What we did with sugar. We get no botanical description, no analysis of the soil types needed, light levels, root depths, pests, colours of stems in different varieties, no pictures except on the book covers. The author is a historian but not a botanist. He assumes we all know what he knows so well from researching the history of a sugar plantation; but for people who have seen something looking like bamboo on the tv once or twice, that's not the case. Similarly he presumes we know as much as we need to know about sugarbeet. Not a single mention of eel worms or the EU forcing Ireland to stop growing sugarbeet. No mention of the possibility of making biofuel from sugar, as is being done. No explanation of why honey is so much dearer than sugar or why bees are under threat.

What the book does cover, admirably, is the movement of honey and sugar around the early trading world, the sugar confectionery of the medieval world, the spread of the trappings of wealth down to the middle market and the poor. The author just says people liked the taste, but now and again he drops a mention that sugar provides energy. How much energy? Again, a scientist would tell us.
Googling it I immediately get:
"According to the USDA, 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar has 16 calories or 32 calories for 2 teaspoons. Brown sugar, packed, has 17 calories per teaspoon and powdered sugar has 10 calories per teaspoon." Livestrong.com
Adding energy to food and drink helped the poor disproportionately because they did most of the physical work.
As with another book I've read on The Potato, a dense, energy-full carbohydrate was needed to power the human brain and muscle (the author doesn't mention our brain runs on carbohydrates) towards the society we have today. As the potato also contains many benefits it provides a better food.

Sugar was produced by sheer hard work; this meant slavery, well covered, and the forced movement of African people around the world. The author doesn't mention the stat I've read elsewhere that slaves lived eighteen months to three years at most in the cane fields. Then when slavery was abolished, indentured labour, much of it from India or Asia, was used, including in Hawaii. This all only ended with mechanisation. The amounts of bulk sugar shipped around the world are hard to imagine. As the author points out, native ecologies were destroyed forever by plantations.

Some of the book is hard to read, due to the historical cruelty. The section towards the end about sugar and obesity is just as astonishing. If you have read Michael Moss' book 'Salt Sugar Fat', you'll know most of it. The high fructose corn syrup byproduct used to make fizzy drinks in America cheaply - because subsidised by the state - instead of cane sugar has addicted a nation or two to teeth-rotting, obesity inducing, money-stealing, plastic-fouling drinks (plastic not mentioned by the author) and sugar is disguised and added to food, because it is cheap.
Don't buy fizzy drinks and read all food labels or make from scratch.

Bibliography P293 - 296, with numbered references after that. I counted 16 names which I could be sure were female.
I read this book from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mr D M Williamson
5.0 out of 5 stars Facts behind the sugar spoon.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
Opened my mind to the reality behind a white substance that sits so innocently on any family dining table. A real ticking time-bomb for uninformed folk & children.
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Vikash
5.0 out of 5 stars Sugar Historical journey
Reviewed in India on June 2, 2018
Verified Purchase
Very good reading on sugar origin and its journey. Gave an interesting perspective. Sugar is new tobacco. It’s Manipulation by MNCs is an eye opener.
One person found this helpful
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Basavaraju B S
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on May 4, 2018
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none
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MC Lincs. UK
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2018
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Superb
One person found this helpful
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S P.
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not well written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
An interesting and well researched history of the subject but not awfully well written. The author meanders through topics without making too clear of a point. Slavery is repeatedly presented as a punchline at the end of paragraphs and chapters which somewhat loses the impact and becomes demeaning and irritating after a while. More like 2.5 stars than 3.
3 people found this helpful
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