Product Description

A personal and highly original take on the history of six commercial plants, Seeds of Change illuminates how sugar, tea, cotton, the potato, quinine, and the cocoa plant have shaped our past. In this fascinating account, the impassioned Henry Hobhouse explains the consequences of these plants with attention-grabbing historical moments. While most records of history focus on human influence, Hobhouse emphasizes how plants too are a central and influential factor in the historical process. Seeds of Change is a captivating and invaluable addition to our understanding of modern culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81590 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781593760496
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
This book, devoted to quinine, sugar, tea, cotton, and the potato, is not just about plants but about history. It shows how certain plants influenced the course of human affairs, often negatively. Quinine, for instance, cures malaria, but that quality allowed temperate-climate peoples to exploit tropical areas. The development of cheap sugar is linked with slavery, and tea with opium. Seeds of Change is fascinating and well researched. (The chapter notes would have been handier as footnotesthey are too interesting to be overlooked.) Recommended. Katharine Galloway Garstka, Intergraph Corp., Huntsville, Ala.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Five plants--quinine, sugar cane, tea, cotton, and potato--have been powerful political historical catalysts, argues this speculative journalist. "Wise and witty . . . deserves to become a classic."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Henry Hobhouse has served on various academic, scholastic and local government bodies. He has been a member of various government advisory bodies, a consultant to the Quincentenary of Columbus Exhibition, the Smithsonian Institute and Chariman of Herstmonceux. His other books include Forces Of Change.

Customer Reviews

Hobhouse's Unvaring Modes of Excellence
On first reading of H. Hobhouse's Seeds of Change, it covered only 5 plants. So finding that he had added Cocoa was a surprise. It was also a pleasure. As before Henry has done a great job. He has taken his insights of the changes caused by these plants further in his book FORCES OF CHANGE. As with Jim Burke's CONNECTIONS, Mr. Hobhouse has done an excellent job in presenting the hidden impact of the biologicals over the last several hundred years. Our generations are seeing the immense impact of the Internet. His doumentation of the impact of plants which led to "Forces of Change" had still not been adequately treated in tech and in academic forums. We are still "snowblind" on the global impacts of so many things. It is not surprising that the rapid changes are still obscured by the dust of change. Ultimately, however, I think that H. Hobhouse's contribution to "systemic insights" will be an excellent clarifier of the values of our times as well as the differentials of the last half millenium.

Five economically important plants from a historical view
If James M. Cain wrote history, this is the style he would employ.
Hobhouse's terse, unflowered prose moves the narrative along, and he
has an an attitude: cynical. If you liked Marvin Harris and Jared
Diamond, and I know you did, you'll like Henry Hobhouse because he has
a similar myth-exploding, cant-debasing, and finely tuned BS detector
a-working.

The five plants are quinine, the potato, sugar cane,
cotton, and tea. He's a little thin on the properties of the plants,
but strong on the historical consequences. His explanation of why
slavery died and why it remains a dead institution is excellent. (NOT
because it is immoral, although it is that, but because slavery is
inefficient, economically speaking.) Beware some unusual syntax.

Plant influences on World History
Totally fascinating. Reminds me of Howard Zim's People's History of the United States. Lot's of facts, figure, and dates without being overwelming, with good continuity throughout the various sections. There is so much about the forces on world history that we don't understand. Would the world have been without widespread Black slavery if there had been no sugar and cotton plantations? What would Africa and the United States be like now? Would China have become a major world power in the 19th century if it had not been for the tea and opium trade? Very thoughtful. I listened to a books-on-tape version from the local library and want to get copies for friends and family.