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Sweets: A History of Candy
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Sweets: A History of Candy description
Tim Richardson has always looked at life through candy-colored glasses (his grandfather worked for a toffee company and his father was a dentist), but in Sweets, as the world's first "international confectionery historian," he takes a look at the history of mankind. From prehistoric cave paintings of our forefathers eating honey to references of cocoa beans used as money by the ancient Mayans, Richardson has left no gobstopper unturned. Through intensive research, plenty of taste testing, and field trips around the world to places such as Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the Haribo plant in Pontefract, Yorkshire, "birthplace of all English gummy bears," Richardson leads a whirlwind tour filled with unforgettable characters, intrigue, and high stakes. Along the way, he explains our planet-wide obsession with anything sweet--it's been scientifically proven that even newborn babies and elephants love anything sweet--and offers up a lifetime of trivia for the sweet-obsessed. Although Richardson is English and American readers might be unfamiliar with his number one favorite sweet, Rhubarb and Custards, chances are any sweet-lover will relish this quirky look at civilization and the truly fascinating history of candy-making and consumption. --Leora Y. Bloom |
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Sweets: A History of Candy Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Good, Not Perfect
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Tim Richardson embarked on a mammoth task to document the story of candy from an international perspective. In many ways, he succeeds -- his chapters on the origins of candy and chocolate in medieval Europe, and his discussion of labor relations in the chocolate factories at Hershey and Cadbury are superb. His writing even has a tinge of anthropology, too, explaining to us why we like sweet things in the first place.
However, towards the end of the book, Richardson tries to get you to believe that modern science has launched a conspiracy against candy by claiming that it will make you fat. Richardson says that sugar, since its a carbohydrate, is not actually so bad for you. I found this to be rather ignorant, since it is an extremely high-calorie carbohydrate and will definitely make you fat if you eat a ton of it! In addition, his final chapter reads like an unimaginative listing of candy from around the world rather than a narrative like the rest of the book, making that section a bit boring to read. Half of the "traditional Jewish" sweets he mentioned I had never heard of, making me wonder if he knew what he was talking about in reference to other cultures.
Still, if you are interested in the topic, it's worth picking it up -- if you can handle the at-times obnoxious British sense of humor! |
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