Sugar: The world corrupted, from slavery to obesity
James Walvin
Jul 2017 · Little, Brown Book Group · Narrated by Roger Davis
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10 hr 48 min
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An 'entertaining, informative and utterly depressing global history of an important commodity . . . By alerting readers to the ways that modernity's very origins are entangled with a seemingly benign and delicious substance, Sugar raises fundamental questions about our world.'
Sven Beckert, the Laird Bell professor of American history at Harvard University and the author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, in the New York Times
'A brilliant and thought-provoking history of sugar and its ironies'
Bee Wilson, Wall Street Journal
'Shocking and revelatory . . . no other product has so changed the world, and no other book reveals the scale of its impact.' David Olusoga
'This study could not be more timely.' Laura Sandy, Lecturer in the History of Slavery, University of Liverpool
How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic?
Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the preserve of the rich. But with the rise of the European sugar colonies in the Americas in the seventeenth century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous and hugely popular - an everyday necessity.
As recently as the 1970s, very few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem;
yet today, sugar is regularly denounced as a dangerous addiction, on a par with tobacco, and the cause of a global obesity epidemic. While sugar cosumption remains higher than ever - in some countries as high as 50kg per head per year - some advertisements proudly proclaim that their product contains no sugar. Sugar, while still clearly much loved, has taken on a pariah status.
Sugar grown by enslaved workers - people who had been uprooted and shipped vast distances to undertake the gruelling, intensive labour on plantations - brought about revolutionary changes in the landscape of the sugar colonies while transforming the tastes of the Western world.
Only now is the extensive ecological harm caused by sugar plantations being fully recognised, but it is the brutal human cost, from the first slave gangs in sixteenth-century Brazil, through to indentured Indian labourers in Fiji, the Japanese in Hawaii or the 'South Sea Islanders' shipped to Australia in the late nineteenth century, that has struck us most forcibly in the recent past.
We can only fully understand our contemporary dietary concerns with regard to sugar by coming to terms with the relationship between society and sweetness over a long historical span dating back two centuries to a time when sugar was vital to the burgeoning European domestic and colonial economies. This is exactly what Walvin helps us to do.
Sven Beckert, the Laird Bell professor of American history at Harvard University and the author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, in the New York Times
'A brilliant and thought-provoking history of sugar and its ironies'
Bee Wilson, Wall Street Journal
'Shocking and revelatory . . . no other product has so changed the world, and no other book reveals the scale of its impact.' David Olusoga
'This study could not be more timely.' Laura Sandy, Lecturer in the History of Slavery, University of Liverpool
How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic?
Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the preserve of the rich. But with the rise of the European sugar colonies in the Americas in the seventeenth century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous and hugely popular - an everyday necessity.
As recently as the 1970s, very few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem;
yet today, sugar is regularly denounced as a dangerous addiction, on a par with tobacco, and the cause of a global obesity epidemic. While sugar cosumption remains higher than ever - in some countries as high as 50kg per head per year - some advertisements proudly proclaim that their product contains no sugar. Sugar, while still clearly much loved, has taken on a pariah status.
Sugar grown by enslaved workers - people who had been uprooted and shipped vast distances to undertake the gruelling, intensive labour on plantations - brought about revolutionary changes in the landscape of the sugar colonies while transforming the tastes of the Western world.
Only now is the extensive ecological harm caused by sugar plantations being fully recognised, but it is the brutal human cost, from the first slave gangs in sixteenth-century Brazil, through to indentured Indian labourers in Fiji, the Japanese in Hawaii or the 'South Sea Islanders' shipped to Australia in the late nineteenth century, that has struck us most forcibly in the recent past.
We can only fully understand our contemporary dietary concerns with regard to sugar by coming to terms with the relationship between society and sweetness over a long historical span dating back two centuries to a time when sugar was vital to the burgeoning European domestic and colonial economies. This is exactly what Walvin helps us to do.
An 'entertaining, informative and utterly depressing global history of an important commodity . . . By alerting readers to the ways that modernity's very origins are entangled with a seemingly benign and delicious substance, Sugar raises fundamental questions about our world.'
Sven Beckert, the L...
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2 reviews
Fabiana NOT drugs NOT sugar NOT lgbtq
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October 2, 2026
HELP ME URGENT PLEASE 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 LOVED is the collagen of JUSTICE that preserves the brain of the LAW to nourish the rest of the body URGENT PLEASE HELP ME URGENT PLEASE I still eat meat I learned from the Holy Spirit, who CONSUMES THE FLESH and convicts of righteousness, sin, and judgment. Life inspires the Game🎮: before the thefts, before the torture in the hospital, the ten years of the stolen cell phone, and all the lgbtq drug trafficking schemes; the Police 🚔 were already hunting Pokémon back then, and they continue to hunt. No intelligent person wants to use drugs, so they mix drugs with sugar to drug even children. No drugs, no addictions; respecting the law is the most important religion in the universe. Socialism, communism, and injustices for example, issues of psychopathy and lgbtq mutilation are criminal pandemics that "abort" people unchecked. My family is the one that does the will of the Lord Father: we keep the Law. ALTERING WHAT I HAVE BEEN WRITING ALL THIS TIME ONLY PROVES THE CRIMES🧊🪖 ICE 🧊🪖 DHS 🧊🪖 CBP 🧊🪖 ERO Medical care for the body, free from theft. RESPECT FOR THE LAW THE MOST IMPORTANT RELIGION IN THE UNIVERSE. All the treacherous serpents who robbed me during these ten years of injustice will reap the same fruit and meet the same end as that Judas 🐍. Faster than the speed of light like the One faster than the speed of light who imprisoned the devil before sunrise.URGENT PLEASE HELP ME 🪖🧊🇺🇲 RETORNIT a falar aquelas palavras Tem gente que quando se fere só sai poeira porque até o sangue que existia dentro delas explodiu dentro das veias A construção mais importante que existe ainda é o respect porque ele é a estrutura de todas as outras estruturas que existem for universe 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 I REBUKE YOU Eu te repreendo auqadelas lgbtq do tráfico nem com os 10 anos de roubo e a torturas no hospital sus tenta vel O véu que o SUS Tenta tirar de Pureza originalidade com tortura para o tráfico não está acima da sustentabilidade da carne do combustível e todos os recursos originais que sustenta as habilidades de Um ser superior a elas Aliás foi feito por gente superior não pelo tráfico de drogas que quer retirar tudo e utilizar para produzir lixo e fazer das pessoas cópia barata da pereba de satanas com torturas abusos roubos da pureza de span spancamento vulnerables childs criminals abortanto life's para sus tentar a verdadeiras pragas baratas os crimes feminicidio escravidao eslavery dos vicious eu prefero ENFORCEMENT THE LAW
FFFAAABIANA NOTSugarsDrugsLgbtq
- Flag inappropriate
- Show review history
October 11, 2026
HELP ME URGENT PLEASE 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS HSI NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 LOVED is the collagen of JUSTICE that preserves the brain of the LAW to nourish the rest of the body URGENT PLEASE HELP ME URGENT PLEASE I still eat meat I learned from the Holy Spirit, who CONSUMES THE FLESH and convicts of righteousness, sin, and judgment. Life inspires the Game🎮: before the thefts, before the torture in the hospital, the ten years of the stolen cell phone, and all the lgbtq drug trafficking schemes; the Police 🚔 were already hunting Pokémon back then, and they continue to hunt No intelligent person wants to use drugs, so they mix drugs with sugar to drug even children No drugs, no addictions; respecting the law is the most important religion in the universe. Socialism, communism, and injustices for example, issues of psychopathy and lgbtq mutilation are criminal pandemics that "abort" people unchecked My family is the one that does the will of the Lord Father: we keep the Law. ALTERING WHAT I HAVE BEEN WRITING ALL THIS TIME ONLY PROVES THE CRIMES🧊🪖 ICE 🧊🪖 DHS 🧊🪖HSI 🧊🪖 CBP 🧊🪖 ERO Medical care for the body, free from theft. RESPECT FOR THE LAW THE MOST IMPORTANT RELIGION IN THE UNIVERSE All the treacherous serpents who robbed me during these ten years of injustice will reap the same fruit and meet the same end as that Judas 🐍 Faster than the speed of light like the One faster than the speed of light who imprisoned the devil before sunrise URGENT PLEASE HELP ME 🪖🧊🇺🇲 RETORNIT a falar aquelas palavras Tem gente que quando se fere só sai poeira porque até o sangue que existia dentro delas explodiu dentro das veias A construção mais importante que existe ainda é o respect porque ele é a estrutura de todas as outras estruturas que existem for universe 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS HSI NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 I REBUKE YOU Eu te repreendo auqadelas lgbtq do tráfico nem com os 10 anos de roubo e a torturas no hospital sus tenta vel O véu que o SUS Tenta tirar de Pureza originalidade com tortura para o tráfico não está acima da sustentabilidade da carne do combustível e todos os recursos originais que sustenta as habilidades de Um ser superior a elas Aliás foi feito por gente superior não pelo tráfico de drogas que quer retirar tudo e utilizar para produzir lixo e fazer das pessoas cópia barata da pereba de satanas com torturas abusos roubos da pureza de span spancamento vulnerables childs criminals abortanto life's para sus tentar a verdadeiras pragas baratas os crimes feminicidio escravidao eslavery dos vicious eu prefero ENFORCEMENT THE LAW I'm me rebuke you I'm me rejected Eu te repreendo auqadela pombagira lgbtq do tráfico Christian and Mercy andam juntos porque for Mercy ENFORCEMENT THE LAW não sacrifica milhões de pessoas com atentados terroristas domesticos The highly competent and professional police officers are not to blame for those imbeciles dogs having been deceived and led to harm everyone during the attack on the World Trade Center, and for being reduced to pointing at manhole covers. not tortura ou mutila com rituais criminals abusos para manter uma mentira de falsificaçao chamada tráfico de drogas covarde e excessivamente criminosa fazendo inocentes de spam spancamento e pragas baratas para sustentar as drogas baratas e vicious todos horriveis SENsato é ENFORCEMENT THE LAW
About the author
JAMES WALVIN is the author of many books on slavery and modern social history. His book, Crossings, was published by Reaktion Books in 2013. His first book, with Michael Craton, was a detailed study of a sugar plantation: A Jamaican Plantation, Worthy Park, 1670-1970 (Toronto, 1970). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006, and in 2008 was awarded an OBE for services to scholarship.
JAMES WALVIN is the author of many books on slavery and modern social history. His book, Crossings, was published by Reaktion Books in 2013. His first book, with Michael Craton, was a detailed study of a sugar plantation: A Jamaican Plantation, Worthy Park, 1670-1970 (Toronto, 1970). He became a ...
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