Read Online Potato Object Lessons edition by Rebecca Earle Politics Social Sciences eBooks
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Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Baked potatoes, Bombay potatoes, pommes frites . . . everyone eats potatoes, but what do they mean? To the United Nations they mean global food security (potatoes are the world's fourth most important food crop). To 18th-century philosophers they promised happiness. Nutritionists warn that too many increase your risk of hypertension. For the poet Seamus Heaney they conjured up both his mother and the 19th-century Irish famine.
What stories lie behind the ordinary potato? The potato is entangled with the birth of the liberal state and the idea that individuals, rather than communities, should form the building blocks of society. Potatoes also speak about family, and our quest for communion with the universe. Thinking about potatoes turns out to be a good way of thinking about some of the important tensions in our world.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Read Online Potato Object Lessons edition by Rebecca Earle Politics Social Sciences eBooks
"Compared with most volumes in Bloomsbury’s generally excellent ‘Object Lessons’ series Rebecca Earle’s ‘Potato’ appears thin in both text and argument.
In the Acknowledgements Earle expresses the view that “Potatoes provide a way for us to speak about ourselves†and this she certainly does, with the ‘Family histories’ section of the book, written with her sister Susan and discussing, inter alia, family recipes for potato noodles and potato rolls, being allotted considerably more space than the discussion of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849.
The author shows how the potato has conquered the world since the Spanish conquered the Americas and along the way raises some important questions, such as the balance to be struck between the individual and the state in making decisions about healthy eating. Unfortunately, however, she also manages to contradict herself.
Thus when discussing the Great Famine, the rural Irish dependence upon the potato is represented as “an affront to modern capitalist practice†in the eyes of the British government, or at least those of Charles Trevelyan, the “chief administrator at the Treasury in Londonâ€, yet later in the book when Earle discusses the Captain Swing riots of agricultural labourers in England in 1830 the protesters’ slogan ‘We will not live upon potatoes’ is taken to demonstrate the fact that that upheaval “was essentially a protest against the transformation of English agriculture into a fully capitalist systemâ€.
Thus in Chapter 1 the “collapse of the potato economy†in Ireland is wished for by the authorities as a means of propelling “Irish smallholders … into the ranks of the proletariat†but in Chapter 5 the potato is represented as having “been enlisted in the campaign of capitalism†as part of the process whereby England’s rural labourers had been proletarianised. Earle can’t really have it both ways, with the potato both an obstacle to the development of capitalism and a sign of capitalist development.
However good the family potato recipes may be I’m afraid they can’t compensate for this kind of half-baked mess."
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Potato Object Lessons edition by Rebecca Earle Politics Social Sciences eBooks Reviews :
Potato Object Lessons edition by Rebecca Earle Politics Social Sciences eBooks Reviews
- Compared with most volumes in Bloomsbury’s generally excellent ‘Object Lessons’ series Rebecca Earle’s ‘Potato’ appears thin in both text and argument.
In the Acknowledgements Earle expresses the view that “Potatoes provide a way for us to speak about ourselves†and this she certainly does, with the ‘Family histories’ section of the book, written with her sister Susan and discussing, inter alia, family recipes for potato noodles and potato rolls, being allotted considerably more space than the discussion of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849.
The author shows how the potato has conquered the world since the Spanish conquered the Americas and along the way raises some important questions, such as the balance to be struck between the individual and the state in making decisions about healthy eating. Unfortunately, however, she also manages to contradict herself.
Thus when discussing the Great Famine, the rural Irish dependence upon the potato is represented as “an affront to modern capitalist practice†in the eyes of the British government, or at least those of Charles Trevelyan, the “chief administrator at the Treasury in Londonâ€, yet later in the book when Earle discusses the Captain Swing riots of agricultural labourers in England in 1830 the protesters’ slogan ‘We will not live upon potatoes’ is taken to demonstrate the fact that that upheaval “was essentially a protest against the transformation of English agriculture into a fully capitalist systemâ€.
Thus in Chapter 1 the “collapse of the potato economy†in Ireland is wished for by the authorities as a means of propelling “Irish smallholders … into the ranks of the proletariat†but in Chapter 5 the potato is represented as having “been enlisted in the campaign of capitalism†as part of the process whereby England’s rural labourers had been proletarianised. Earle can’t really have it both ways, with the potato both an obstacle to the development of capitalism and a sign of capitalist development.
However good the family potato recipes may be I’m afraid they can’t compensate for this kind of half-baked mess. - Good smells exude from crumbled earth.
The rough bark of humus erupts
knots of potatoes (a clean birth)
whose solid feel, whose wet inside
promises taste of ground and root.
To be piled in pits; live skulls, blind-eyed.
~Seamus Heaney, "At a Potato Digging"
The potato is probably the world's most underappreciated food. In South America, it did not get the ceremony of corn, but it did travel the world and quickly after they were discovered. According to the United Nations, the potato is grown in every country of the world (five nations, however,The potato is probably the world's most underappreciated food provided no information). Potatoes thrived in South America but failed catastrophically in Ireland due to a blight. South American's crops, however, were not monocultures like the Irish, several varieties were grown together. Just about every culture has potato dishes from the Americas, through Africa, the Middle East, and China. China now is the largest producer of potatoes in the world together with India they account for 1/3 of the worlds potato production. Even Saudi Arabia produces close to half a million tons of potatoes.Â
Potatoes have been credited with growing community, self-sufficiency, tax evasion, evil (since they are not in the Bible), and hypertension, Rebecca Earle's Potato shows the potato in its historic role in the west and now around the world. The potato proves to be a staple with little fanfare, except for a few poets and painters, despite its worldwide popularity.
Available Mich 21, 2019 - Potatoes are so commonplace that we consumers take them for granted, but this plant has a long curious history which is recounted in this engrossing account by Rebecca Earle. Dispersed from its origin in the Andes, the potato has become a primary food source throughout the world. The narrative relates how this adopted vegetable has evolved into one of the world’s prime staple foods, alongside corn, wheat, and rice. It is now competing with rice as the major food source in Asia. Read how this shapeless tuber, dug up from the ground influenced the kitchen, culture, diets, politics, literature, and certainly our history. The mountainous people froze these tubers which developed into the production of modern frozen spuds. Feast on the culinary chapters devoted to potato casseroles, fritters, and so many other delicious forms of potatoes. Regard this ugly tuber as the basic initiator of the proverbial ‘stone soup’. Underground crops dismayed officials who could not count the hidden tubers for tax purposes. As for the Irish famine, the lesson learned is to not rely on a monoculture crop which is susceptible to disease, now there are about one thousand different varieties of potatoes. Some even have different colors. Learn more about this staple tater through this engrossing report about its origin, development, and influence on our lives.
