Most all food products manufactured today contain some form of sugar even if it is not noticed by most consumers. Every day products such as toothpaste, potato chips, beer, and other items contain some type of sugar to enhance the taste for users. Author Sidney W. Mintz examines the infatuation of the Western world with sugar and its great impact on the history of labor as well as its impact on economic history. .
The infatuation with sugar is understood at even the most basic level. If sugar is used in a food item, it most likely is used to enhance that food item and to make it more appealing to consumers. Although the negative health effects of consuming sugar are often espoused by anyone who has the ear of the public, sugar is still consumed in massive quantities by people all over the world. Normally when one is consuming sugar there is no thought given to where it comes from or who produced it. In fact, I cannot recall the last time I thought about where sugar came from or how it was being used in the food and items I was consuming. Mintz takes the opportunity to examine this essential product and its history when not many other historians have before him. In the introduction of the book, Mintz writes that the book was formed over years of encountering data and history about the widespread manufacturing and use of sugar and how it impacts not only the countries it is made in but the countries it is consumed in as well. It was not originally what he set out to research and write about; however, as he examined history he became more and more aware of the serious impacts of this household staple.
It is first important to understand the overview and purpose of the book before analyzing its message and how it relates to the history of labor overall. Mintz organizes the book starting with an analysis of how food is centered in our relationships with people no matter where we live and no matter what time period it is.