03410nam 2200601Ia 450 991077809230332120230721021803.01-282-35174-597866123517470-300-15399-6(CKB)1000000000764838(StDuBDS)AH21618834(SSID)ssj0000225070(PQKBManifestationID)11188055(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000225070(PQKBWorkID)10229909(PQKB)10364178(MiAaPQ)EBC3420539(Au-PeEL)EBL3420539(CaPaEBR)ebr10348434(CaONFJC)MIL235174(OCoLC)923594333(EXLCZ)99100000000076483820081011d2009 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrPotato[electronic resource] a history of the propitious esculent /John ReaderNew Haven Yale University Press20091 online resource (336 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-300-14109-2 Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-305) and index.South America --To Mars from the Andes --What exactly is a potato? --Domestication --Whence have they come? --A dainty dish --Europe --The lonely impulse of delight --The way it was --The demoralising esculent --Where the praties grow --Seeds of famine --Woe the sons of Adam! --The world --The fatal malady --Co-opting science --Men on a mission --Global voyage --Developing worlds --For the price of apples.The potatohumble, lumpy, bland, familiaris a decidedly unglamorous staple of the dinner table. Or is it? John Readers narrative on the role of the potato in world history suggests we may be underestimating this remarkable tuber. From domestication in Peru 8,000 years ago to its status today as the worlds fourth largest food crop, the potato has played a starringor at least supportingrole in many chapters of human history. In this witty and engaging book, Reader opens our eyes to the power of the potato.Whether embraced as the solution to hunger or wielded as a weapon of exploitation, blamed for famine and death or recognized for spurring progress, the potato has often changed the course of human events. Reader focuses on sixteenth-century South America, where the indigenous potato enabled Spanish conquerors to feed thousands of conscripted native people; eighteenth-century Europe, where the nutrition-packed potato brought about a population explosion; and todays global world, where the potato is an essential food source but also the worlds most chemically-dependent crop. Where potatoes have been adopted as a staple food, social change has always followed. It may be just a humble vegetable, John Reader shows, yet the history of the potato has been anything but dull.PotatoesPotatoesHistoryFood cropsPotatoes.PotatoesHistory.Food crops.15.50bclReader John74428Reader John74428MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910778092303321Potato3854146UNINA