Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind
by Henry Hobhouse
List Price:
Our Price: $11.95
You Save: $7.00 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.98 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Henry HobhouseEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11-22
ISBN: 1593760493
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Counterpoint
Book Reviews of Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind
Book Review: A Very Good Social, Historical and Economic Perspective of Six Plants
Summary: 4 Stars
In Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind the author, Henry Hobhouse, puts forth his arguments for six plants, the cultivation, production, trade and utilization of which, have had a profound influence on the development of empires and economies. The book was originally printed in 1985 with a second edition in 1999 and a third edition in 2005. So, there are some cultural references that seem a bit dated in 2011. For each of the six plants about which the author chose to write, instead of starting each chapter off with a clearly defined thesis and then setting about proving it, he slowly unwinds a narrative which includes a fair bit of history, technical detail and socio-political perspective. It seems to me, that sometimes the chapters tend to wander a bit off-topic, though into some interesting digressions. Chapter one is about the Chinchona officinalis tree and its derivative quinine. Quinine does not cure people of malaria, but it does mitigate the symptoms so that people survive longer and are much more productive. The authors points are: the trade in quinine was one of the first valuable sources of revenue for Spain (particularly the Jesuits) from the new world, the effort to discover the important active components of Chinchona and their mode of action in treating the symptoms of malaria led to the discovery and synthesis of new drugs, the use of quinine allowed Spain (and later France and England) to colonize tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world with greatly reduced loss of life in the colonizers and greater productivity from the subjugated populations. Chapter two deals with sugarcane and its extract, sugar. The author points out that the establishment of colonies in the Caribbean was to grow sugarcane for export back to England which had an unusually high per capita consumption of a foodstuff that was not necessary to the diet. In fact, the quality of health in England declined as sugar calories displaced calories from other, healthier, foods in the English diet. At the same time, the sugar trade required the labor of African slaves leading to the Africanization of the Caribbean and all the attendant problems that would follow from the dehumanizing trade of human beings. Chapter three deals with tea and, again, the insatiable English demand for it. Originally, tea was available only from China and only in trade for copper, gold or silver. The imbalance in trade led to a hemorrhaging of bullion from England to China. To stanch the flow, England decided to illegally sell opium from their colony in India to China in trade for tea. This would eventually lead to the Opium Wars and the destabilization of Chinese government and economy. Interestingly, the trade in tea also led to the large trade in porcelain wares from China to England, established the economic clout of the Indian colony as an opium and then tea producer and the opium trade established the personal fortunes of Warren Delano (Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandfather), John Murray Forbes of Boston (financial backer of Bell Telephone), the Cabot family of Boston (and their endowment of Harvard University), Abiel Low (benefactor to Columbia University) and John Green (benefactor to Princeton University). Chapter four deals with cotton and the textile made from the plant. Because of the labor involved to harvest cotton, separate the seed from the lint and spin the fibers into thread by hand the cost of cotton textiles was higher than textiles from wool, linen or even silk. The author proposes that had the land west of the Appalachia Mountains not been so ideal for cotton growing and if Eli Whitney had not invented the mechanical cotton gin, slavery might have died out in the US. Instead, cotton became the economic driving force of the plantation south and the industrialized textile mills of the north and England. Chapter five deals with the potato and how the oppressive, ethnically motivated, policies of the English forced the Irish to subsist on marginal land where they could only grow potatoes (high in calories but poor in balanced nutrition). The author documents how the high caloric value of potatoes produced on a small plot of land allowed the Irish population to grow substantially and he points out there were several "famines" due to poor potato crops leading up to the "Great Famine" of 1846-47 which afflicted the entire country. Of course, the potato famine led to mass migration from Ireland to the United States which had a huge impact on the ethnic mélange and politics of cities such as Boston and New York. The sixth plant, coca from which cocaine is derived, was added for the 1999 edition of the book. In South America, the Incas revered coca and chewed the leaves to help them cope with the affects of living and working at such high altitudes. Chemists refined and purified the extracts and created a drug which gave birth to a soft drink empire and has become a cornerstone in the hot political debate about how to deal with addicts and the illegal drug trade. The author presents six plants with six very unique impacts on the development of our modern society. Some might argue that coffee, rubber, maize or tobacco had an equally important impact, but these six make for a very entertaining read.
Summary of Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind
A personal and highly original take on the history of six commercial plants, Seeds of Change illuminates how sugar, tea, cotton, the potato, quinine, and the cocoa plant have shaped our past. In this fascinating account, the impassioned Henry Hobhouse explains the consequences of these plants with attention-grabbing historical moments. While most records of history focus on human influence, Hobhouse emphasizes how plants too are a central and influential factor in the historical process. Seeds of Change is a captivating and invaluable addition to our understanding of modern culture.
Historical Study Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Study Books
Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eatby Sarah Murray
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.88
Price in other shops:
The Shadow of the Winter Palace: Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825-1917by Edward Crankshaw
Da Capo Press; Published: 2000-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Encyclopedia of ChicagoUniversity Of Chicago Press; Published: 2004-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $36.98
Price in other shops:
The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (Oxford Illustrated Histories)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.90
Price in other shops:
A Short History of the American Stomachby Frederick Kaufman
Mariner Books; Published: 2009-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Womanby Nancy Marie Brown
Mariner Books; Published: 2008-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops:
Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American Historyby Ted Steinberg
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.98
Price in other shops:
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern Historyby Sidney W. Mintz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1986-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball Historyby Cait Murphy
Smithsonian; Published: 2007-03-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in Chinaby Peter Hessler
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
A History of the World in 6 Glassesby Tom Standage
Walker Publishing Company; Published: 2006-05-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.09
Price in other shops:
The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World's Harvestby Susan Dworkin
Walker & Company; Published: 2009-11-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.77
Price in other shops:
An Edible History of Humanityby Tom Standage
Walker & Company; Published: 2010-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.43
Price in other shops:
The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western Worldby Larry Zuckerman
North Point Press; Published: 1999-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.21
Price in other shops:
Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculentby John Reader
Yale University Press; Published: 2011-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.46
Price in other shops:
Seeds of Wealth: Five Plants That Made Men Richby Henry Hobhouse
Counterpoint; Published: 2005-12-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops:
The Story of Cornby Betty Fussell
University of New Mexico Press; Published: 2004-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.81
Price in other shops:
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the Worldby Dan Koeppel
Plume; Published: 2008-12-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Spice: The History of a Temptationby Jack Turner
Vintage; Published: 2005-08-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of Historyby Bill Laws
Firefly Books; Published: 2011-09-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.91
Price in other shops: