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The Untold History Of The Potato (2008)

by John Reader(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0099474794 (ISBN13: 9780099474791)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Vintage

review 1: This book went over quite a lot of history related to the potato, from its Andean origins through Columbian history, to Europe, spending a good deal of time in Ireland, and then through to the modern day in China and the developing world. There were a number of interesting things here, but none of them were quite as memorable as I had hoped. Still, it was an interesting romp through history that did provide some interesting ideas about how the availability of adequate nutrition from marginal soils can affect the course of history.
review 2: So far, a tour-de-force of history of politics, social history, botany...I'm not through yet!!Finished this today, 3/21/11. This is one of the best "popular" syntheses of history, botany, sociology that I have read. Mr Read... moreer takes the lowly potato, which most of us do not give two seconds' thought to,from its origins in western South America, early domestication by indigenous peoples and export by Spanish explorers (too nice a word for how they treated, i.e., murdered the Incas and of course Aztecs/Mayans)to Europe, the slow adoption in Europe, how the easy cultivation and prolific production of the potato changed the health and fortune of Irish folks, how the vulnerability of the concentration of one variety of S tuberosa led to the Great Famine of 1845-1847 (as well its echo in China), as well as many other facets of the place of the potato in our current world economies. I highly recommend this book. less

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