Fruits of empire: exotic produce and British taste, 1660 - 1800

What could be more British than a cup of tea? What has proved more resilient vice in Western life than tobacco? What are the origins of our enthusiasm for spice, smoke, and sugar? James Walvin here illustrates how the tastes of the British people, and ultimately the sensory predilections of the enti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Walvin, James 1942- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York New York Univ. Press 1997
Edition:1. publ.
Subjects:
Summary:What could be more British than a cup of tea? What has proved more resilient vice in Western life than tobacco? What are the origins of our enthusiasm for spice, smoke, and sugar? James Walvin here illustrates how the tastes of the British people, and ultimately the sensory predilections of the entire West, were profoundly transformed by the fruits of distant empire and trade. Tracing the history of British global trade and the drive for imperial pre-eminence to the rise of a new kind of domestic material consumption, Fruits of Empire devotes chapters to the allure and spread of tea, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, the potato, and sugar, thereby revealing a continuum between the British passion for empire and the contemporary Western passion to consume.
Physical Description:XIII, 219 S.
ISBN:0814793142

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