CompleteMartialArts.com - The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture)
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Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 978
EAN: 9780520254169
ISBN: 0520254163
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 308
Publication Date: 2007-09-17
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Spice Route is one of history's greatest anomalies: shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or configuration. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought for it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange. Epic in scope, marvelously detailed, laced with drama, The Spice Route spans three millennia and circles the world to chronicle the history of the spice trade. With the aid of ancient geographies, travelers' accounts, mariners' handbooks, and ships' logs, John Keay tells of ancient Egyptians who pioneered maritime trade to fetch the incense of Arabia, Graeco-Roman navigators who found their way to India for pepper and ginger, Columbus who sailed west for spices, de Gama, who sailed east for them, and Magellan, who sailed across the Pacific on the exact same quest. A veritable spice race evolved as the west vied for control of the spice-producing islands, stripping them of their innocence and the spice trade of its mystique. This enthralling saga, progressing from the voyages of the ancients to the blue-water trade that came to prevail by the seventeenth century, transports us from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: `..the allure of spices lay precious in their glorious irrelevance ..'
Comment: If you've ever wondered about what exactly constitutes a spice, where most spices came from and why they were so valuable, then this book will give you a great overview. Did you know, for example, that mace and nutmeg come from the same plant? Or that salt (which is a mineral) is alone in adding intrinsic preservative value to food?
I found this book provided a perfect blend of the exotic, the heroic and the mundane. The story of the journeys which resulted in the discovery of spices, the desire for the rare and the risks associated with transportation make for fascinating reading. Long before a formal stock market existed, futures were made and lost in this precious trade. The spice trade is a fascinating juxtaposition of an historical process spanning three millennia, a geographic progression that encircles the world and a trade in commodities that have little intrinsic value.
So, if you have ever wondered about the stories behind those small packets or glass bottles containing those mysteriously named ingredients that so many of us use in our cooking, you may like to read this book.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Customer Rating:
Summary: So dissapointed
Comment: I was very excited when this book came out, having an interest in the history of the spice trade. Unfortuneately it is poorly written and organized, reading more like a doctoral dissertation than a book. The author might have followed a specific route. or a specific plant, or a historical timeline, but as far as I can tell it is just a mishmash of statements.
It would be much improved by a few maps - unless you know in your head most water routes and islands of the world.
His facts are also somewhat loose - he describes cubeb as a type of pepper - yes it is in the same genus and has a peppery taste, but so are such disparate plants as kava and betel.
And most importantly the love is missing. This doesn't read as a story by a person impassioned by places or plants or history - just an assortment of facts he found. He repeatedly talks about how spices are just for the rich to show off how rich they are - I would say a spice has much more intrinsic value, both as medicine, hygiene and food, than diamonds or other objects of value only for their scarcity.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pepper, Cloves and other Obsessions
Comment: For over two millennium the Western world was obsessed with the spice products of the far east - specifically India, Sri Lanka and the islands of the Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelagos. Obsessed to the point that from the time of the Roman empire onwards Europe ran a constant trade deficit with these countries and with the Arab cultures who for much of the time acted as middlemen. This fine book from John Keay provides a history of this trade from the return of Alexander's soldiers from India bringing with them a taste for spices through to the largely unknown trade of Roman and Hellenistic sailors plying the route from the Red Sea to India and onto the Arabs and finally the Europeans sailing around Africa. In documenting this trade Keay's has provided the reader with a concise but encompassing history of a trade which shaped the world as we now know it.
But equally importantly this book invokes the romance inherent with this subject, leaving the reader to dreaming of sailing to places such as the Zanzibar, Malabar and Coromandel Coasts to trade for spices at the height of trade.
After completing this book, I would recommend an earlier book by John Keay, "The Honourable Company", which is a history of the British East Indian Company and provides more details on the European part of the trade.
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