Sugar and Civilization

American Empire and the Cultural Politics of Sweetness

Bibliographic Data

ID19987572
AuthorsApril Merleaux (corresponding author)
Year2015
Pages320
Publication date2015-09-08
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSugar and Civilization (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of North Carolina Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5149/northcarolina/9781469622514.001.0001
OpenAlexW2335921412
Open LibraryOL28571406M
ISBN9781469622514
LanguageEN
Citations received17

In the weeks and months after the end of the Spanish American War, Americans celebrated their nation's triumph by eating sugar. Each of the nation's new imperial possessions, from Puerto Rico to the Philippines, had the potential for vastly expanding sugar production. As victory parties and commemorations prominently featured candy and other sweets, Americans saw sugar as the reward for their global ambitions. This book demonstrates that trade policies and consumer cultures are as crucial to understanding U.S. empire as military or diplomatic interventions. As America's sweet tooth grew, people debated tariffs, immigration, and empire, all of which hastened the nation's rise as an international power. These dynamics played out in the bureaucracies of Washington, D.C., in the pages of local newspapers, and at local candy counters. This book argues that ideas about race and civilization shaped sugar markets since government policies and business practices hinged on the racial characteristics of the people who worked the land and consumed its products. Connecting the history of sugarto its producers, consumers, and policy makers, the text shows that the modern American sugar habit took shape in the shadow of a growing empire

Bureaucracy · Civilization · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Immigration · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Shadow (psychology) · Sociology · Victory · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Cuban History and Society · Culinary Culture and Tourism · History · Law · Diplomatic relations · foreign economic relations · foreign relations · International economic relations · Political aspects · Sugar · Sugar trade · united states