The readiness of working people to work harder in order to be able to earn and thus consume more was a crucial feature of the evolution of modern patterns of eating. A new commercial spirit had to recognize this readiness, perceiving it as a virtue to be encouraged and exploited. Unleashing that spirit accompanied great changes in the economic and political order, which transformed English agrarian life, freed the rural population, led to the conquest and harnessing of the tropical colonies, and resulted in the introduction of new comestibles into the motherland. My argument is that the heightened consumption of goods like sucrose was the direct consequence of deep alterations in the lives of working people, which made new forms of foods and eating conceivable and natural like new schedules of work, new sorts of labor and new conditions of daily life (Pg.180-181).
The English ruling class did recognize the readiness Mintz speaks about and exploited it. He says sugar provided swifter sensations of fullness or satisfaction than complex carbohydrates; (Pg. 186). By offering the proletarian sugar, they felt more freedom and power and there fore, would work harder. Mintz then goes on to tell how sugar provides a nation with power. Sugar is good for taxing and from taxing the sugar, a nation could gain more wealth and use it for military and economic purposes. The English in the sugar industry such as plantation owners also had power to influence decisions in the Parliament. The people in control used sugar to manipulate the proletarian class. This chapter illustrates foods influence on individuals and how food s symbolic meanings can affect them, and more specifically sugar and the power it gave the English ruling class over the proletarian class and outside of the nation.
The final chapter to the book is chapter five, Eating and Being. In the first four chapters, Mintz has given many facts and concepts about sugar as he looked at its history, but what about our present situation. The fifth chapter tells how what he has just told us is related with our modern society. He gives information, such as who are today s sugar leaders and how much sugar we consume on average. Then he states, The number of foods that require nothing but temperature changes before eating has risen in proportion to the total number of prepared and partially prepared foods, including those that may require more that heating to be done to them before they can be consumed (Pg. 200). The quote goes back to sugar s ability to supplant any food and provide a quick meal. This leads him into a small discussion on meals in our present day and how families rarely ever sit down and have a meal together anymore due to such developments as TV dinners for saving time. He also emphasizes, sugar sucrose has to be viewed in its multiple functions, and as a culturally defined good (Pg. 206). He discusses many problems with fieldwork, as well. He illustrates one problem in this quote on pages 203-204, We know that the scheduling of events and rituals changed radically for the British working class when sugar became common, but the research done on this aspect is too broad (and hence too shallow) to permit documentation in any serious fashion. He mentions that this work was to broad, and he talks about other works, as well. The fifth chapter brings all he talks about together well and he also achieves his goal of identifying problems with fieldwork.
Mintz s Sweetness and Power is a well-written and well thought out piece of work. Mintz presents an interesting, unique topic along with the ideas associated with it, and quite well. He substantiates his ideas very well by including many sources, including both primary and secondary information, spanning the entire globe and throughout time. He has structured the book in an ideal way: easy to understand yet still very functional. Throughout the entire book, he always kept the language in perspective for his audience, which, once again, was any semi-educated person to the professional. This book is a great example of what a history text could and should be. It is informative, unique, interesting, and just all together a good book.