Potato; A History of the Propitious Esculent

by John Reader

• ISBN13: 9780300141092
• ISBN10: 0300141092
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2009-03-17
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

The potatohumble, lumpy, bland, familiaris a decidedly unglamorous staple of the dinner table. Or is it? John Reader's narrative on the role of the potato in world history suggests we may be underestimating this remarkable tuber. From domestication in Peru 8,000 years ago to its status today as the world's fourth largest food crop, the potato has played a starringor at least supportingrole in many chapters of human history. In this witty and engaging book, Reader opens our eyes to the power of the potato. Whether embraced as the solution to hunger or wielded as a weapon of exploitation, blamed for famine and death or recognized for spurring progress, the potato has often changed the course of human events. Reader focuses on sixteenth-century South America, where the indigenous potato enabled Spanish conquerors to feed thousands of conscripted native people; eighteenth-century Europe, where the nutrition-packed potato brought about a population explosion; and today's global world, where the potato is an essential food source but also the world's most chemically-dependent crop. Where potatoes have been adopted as a staple food, social change has always followed. It may be "just" a humble vegetable, John Reader shows, yet the history of the potato has been anything but dull.

Author Biography

John Reader is a writer and photojournalist who holds an honorary research fellowship in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. He has travelled all over the world and now resides in Surrey, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
List of Plates	p. xv
South America	p. 1
To Mars from the Andes	p. 3
What exactly is a potato?	p. 21
Domestication	p. 29
Whence have they come?	p. 39
A dainty dish	p. 61
Europe	p. 75
The lonely impulse of delight	p. 77
The way it was	p. 93
The demoralising esculent	p. 111
Where the praties grow	p. 131
Seeds of famine	p. 153
Woe the sons of Adam!	p. 169
The World	p. 189
The fatal malady	p. 191
Co-opting science	p. 213
Men on a mission	p. 231
Global voyage	p. 241
Developing worlds	p. 253
For the price of apples	p. 265
Notes	p. 279
Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 307
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