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[PAST EVENT] The World of Sugar: How the Histories of Sugar and Capitalism Are Linked
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For most of history, humans did without refined sugar. After all, it serves no necessary purpose in our diets, and extracting it from plants takes hard work and ingenuity. Hence, sugar remained marginal in the diets of most people for a long time. Then, suddenly, it was everywhere. How did sugar find its way into almost all the food we eat, fostering illness and ecological crisis along the way?
Presenting his newest publication, The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years (Harvard University Press, 2023), Professor Bosma will discuss the earliest evidence of sugar production and explain how traders brought small quantities of precious white crystals to rajahs, emperors, and caliphs during the Middle Ages. Later, when European consumers discovered the sweet stuff, increasing demand spawned a brutal quest for supply, based on enslaved labor. Two-thirds of the 12.5 million Africans taken across the Atlantic were destined for sugar plantations. By the twentieth century, sugar had become a major source of calories in diets across Europe and North America. Sugar has been at the heart of capitalism, and this goes a long way in explaining why it poses such a threat to our bodies, our environment, and our communities.
Join Professor Bosma for his book talk on Monday, April 24 from 4-6 PM in the Reves Room.
Contact
Cassie Keene [[w|clkeene]]