![]() More because the author offers much historical background that initially seems peripheral to the potato’s history but ultimately provides essential context less because he offers a selection of vignettes rather than a connected narrative history. Reader’s account is both more and less than the title might suggest. ![]() John Reader’s Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent is a worthy addition to the growing body of works exploring the ways in which foodstuffs have shaped world history. Among the more intriguing examples of this genre have been Betty Fussell’s The Story of Corn (University of New Mexico Press, 2005 reprint of 1992 edition), Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (Walker, 1997), Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History (Walker, 2002), and Andrew Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices (University of California, 2000). In the last two decades, a new crop of books from the field of food studies have explored the historical significance of a variety of edibles. ![]()
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