1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910861017903321

Autore

Earle Rebecca

Titolo

Potato / / Rebecca Earle

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, NY : , : Bloombury Academic, , 2019

ISBN

1-5013-4434-X

1-5013-4432-3

1-5013-4433-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (145 pages)

Collana

Object lessons

Disciplina

641.3/521

Soggetti

Potatoes - History

Potatoes - Social aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Compliant with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Content is displayed as HTML full text which can easily be resized or read with assistive technology, with mark-up that allows screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate easily.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Potato mother -- Global citizens -- The state of the potato -- Pleasure and responsibility -- Potato philosophy.

Sommario/riassunto

"Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Baked potatoes, Bombay potatoes, pommes frites . . . everyone eats potatoes, but what do they mean? To the United Nations they mean global food security (potatoes are the world's fourth most important food crop). To 18th-century philosophers they promised happiness. Nutritionists warn that too many increase your risk of hypertension. For the poet Seamus Heaney they conjured up both his mother and the 19th-century Irish famine. What stories lie behind the ordinary potato? The potato is entangled with the birth of the liberal state and the idea that individuals, rather than communities, should form the building blocks of society. Potatoes also speak about family, and our quest for communion with the universe. Thinking about potatoes turns out to be a good way of thinking about some of the important tensions in our world. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic."--Bloomsbury publishing.