Chocolate: A Global History

Description

Redolent of everything sensual and hedonistic, chocolate is adored around the world, and has been since the Spanish first encountered cocoa beans in South America in the sixteenth century. Chocolate is seen as magical, addictive, and powerful beyond anything that can be explained by its ingredients, and in Chocolate Sarah Moss and Alec Badenoch explore how this surprisingly universal obsession has come about, and how its undiminished force affects us to this day.

Sarah Moss is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. She has written widely on the literature and culture of food. Alexander Badenoch is an Instructor in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, and is the author of Voices in Ruins: West German Radio Across the 1945 Divide (2008).

The politics of cocoa - chocolate's key ingredient - are fascinating. For centuries African and Central American farmers made it for the paler races to devour. And how did Westerners thank them? With some of the most eye-bogglingly racist advertising in history. Hopefully, paying the current farmers Fair Trade prices will make amends. Diplomat magazine The Edible series contains some of the most delicious nuggets of food and drink history ever. Every volume is such a fascinating and succinct read that I had to devour each in just a single sitting ... food writing at its best! -- Ken Hom, chef and author