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48th out of 568 books
—
841 voters
Spice: The History of a Temptation
by
Jack Turner
A brilliant, original history of the spice trade—and the appetites that fueled it.
It was in search of the fabled Spice Islands and their cloves that Magellan charted the first circumnavigation of the globe. Vasco da Gama sailed the dangerous waters around Africa to India on a quest for Christians—and spices. Columbus sought gold and pepper but found the New World. By the...more
It was in search of the fabled Spice Islands and their cloves that Magellan charted the first circumnavigation of the globe. Vasco da Gama sailed the dangerous waters around Africa to India on a quest for Christians—and spices. Columbus sought gold and pepper but found the New World. By the...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
August 9th 2005
by Vintage
(first published August 10th 2004)
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The book is too long. There's a 25+ page intro. Learned a lot from that. Found the 309 pages of the story much more than I wanted to know. Did learn a lot more about where on a plant or a tree some spices came from. Now enjoy a chef's presentation more!
Just after finishing the book, came across an ex Peace Corps Volunteer's work in Afghanistan helping create a local successful business with all the necessary "spice" parts available locally to create a perfumed soap product that is well sought af...more
Just after finishing the book, came across an ex Peace Corps Volunteer's work in Afghanistan helping create a local successful business with all the necessary "spice" parts available locally to create a perfumed soap product that is well sought af...more
Critics agree that Turner knows his spices. In this first book, he proves himself a skillful researcher, as comfortable with medieval resources as he is with electronic ones. For many, Turner's wide knowledge and his flair for the anecdote
This isn't really a history of spices, or the spice trade- rather it is about the taste for spices. It is also almost exclusively about Europe. That was a little different from what I had expected, but I did really enjoy the book. Turner doesn't really care about where the spices come from or how they got to Europe, what he wants to delve into is how Europeans felt about spices, what kinds of associations and properties were attributed to spices, and how those changed over time. How did a spice...more
I desperately wanted this book to be better. I wanted to engross myself in the history of spices and find out how we started using them and why.
Unfortunately, although I'm sure the information is somewhere in there, it's so badly organized I'm not sure I could find it.
The timeline jumps around so dramatically that it's almost impossible to keep up. You start off in with Christopher Columbus, now you're in Rome, nope you're in the Middle Ages, nope now you're in ancient Egypt, nope now you're in...more
Unfortunately, although I'm sure the information is somewhere in there, it's so badly organized I'm not sure I could find it.
The timeline jumps around so dramatically that it's almost impossible to keep up. You start off in with Christopher Columbus, now you're in Rome, nope you're in the Middle Ages, nope now you're in ancient Egypt, nope now you're in...more
Coba simak teka-teki berikut ini:
Aku hitam, diselimuti oleh keriput
Namun di dalam, sumsumku terbakar
Aku penikmat hidangan perjamuan para raja dan kemewahan di atas meja
Baik saus dan daging empuk di dapur
Namun kau tak akan temukan kualitas yang bernilai dalam diriku
Kecuali bila isi perutmu telah berderik oleh nyalang sumsumku
Tahu jawabannya?
Yang betul.... LADA
Siapa yang mengiri limpahan rempah di tanah air membuat kita menjadi sasaran penjajahan.
Rempah memang barang mahal, konon para suami dengan...more
Aku hitam, diselimuti oleh keriput
Namun di dalam, sumsumku terbakar
Aku penikmat hidangan perjamuan para raja dan kemewahan di atas meja
Baik saus dan daging empuk di dapur
Namun kau tak akan temukan kualitas yang bernilai dalam diriku
Kecuali bila isi perutmu telah berderik oleh nyalang sumsumku
Tahu jawabannya?
Yang betul.... LADA
Siapa yang mengiri limpahan rempah di tanah air membuat kita menjadi sasaran penjajahan.
Rempah memang barang mahal, konon para suami dengan...more
I really wanted to like this book because I think the history of commodities (their production, trade, and use) is interesting, but I just couldn't get my heart into this book. The book is rife with really interesting facts (such as how pepper used to be a sign of wealth until it became widely available and a different set of spices became the new sign of wealth) and does a nice job cataloguing the development of the spice trade, but suffers from how these facts and stories are organized. This b...more
I found this book disappointing for a couple of different reasons. Spices are, unlike salt, not strictly necessary; they're a luxury good. Turner's discussion of the ancient spice trade was the most interesting part of the book for me, because he dug into the intersection of luxury trade and political economy and the way markets in goods like spices established trade routes between east and west over what was, at the time, staggering distances. But by the time he gets to the medieval spice trade...more
...more reading in food history. Turner's book discusses the place of spices in Western history during the time of the spice trade. The book is organized by theme rather than by a timeline alone. He discusses spice and its role in exploration, trade, class, cuisine/diet, medicine, sexual attitudes, and religion. Not all chapters are equally compelling, but as a whole the book is an interesting addition to my library of food history. I do feel a bit let down that the book leaves out a large part...more
This was more like a 2.5. Turner writes well, but writes immensely long chapters. Reads much like a history thesis gone on, and on, and on, it is so comprehensive and rooted in primary sources. His thesis was a little odd, too, and I don't quite think he succeeded in parsing the desire that drove most of Western Europe spice-crazy, as he intended to do. But he was close. Dense and interesting, but long.
As a history book, this is competently written, but not wildly exciting. I am on my second attempt at reading this, however, and may give up for good this time. It's a little on the dry side, although not the dullest pop-history book I've ever read. It's getting better, but still could do with more personal stories to liven it up. At about the half-way point, I'm giving up. Most of the history is stuff I've read/picked up elsewhere, just re-arranged, in a okay format but I have a ton of other th...more
A bit scattered but full of interesting trivia. This book didn't go into great depth about any of the topics it looked at but more seemed like a string of interesting anecodotes about historical attitudes and beliefs about spice and a little about the spice trade and how it changed over time. It would have been nice if it was less random and gave a bit more than a few surface facts.
Maybe I'm judging this book too much by its title. If the title was "An Inquiry Into the History and Uses of Spices and their Impact on Human Development Trade", I would not have rated it so poorly. But then I probably wouldn't have picked it up either.
However because the title is "Spice: The History of a Temptation", I expected a microhistory. Like "Salt", "Cod", "Gunpowder", etc. I expected a book that's fast-paced, packed with information that flows easily, and is critically edited. But that'...more
However because the title is "Spice: The History of a Temptation", I expected a microhistory. Like "Salt", "Cod", "Gunpowder", etc. I expected a book that's fast-paced, packed with information that flows easily, and is critically edited. But that'...more
sometimes fascinating, sometimes incredibly tedious survey of the uses, meaning, and provision of spices (mostly pepper, cloves and nutmeg) in ancient Greece, Rome and Medieval Europe. the chapters on the incredible journeys taken in the search for spices and their eventual decline from favor as magical and potent offerings were the most compelling. the lengthy catalogues of their uses in medicine, as aphrodisiacs, in cuisine and social rituals, not so much.
I'm fascinated by maritime exploration. The so called "Spice Islands" had a particular draw for Europeans in the Middle Ages and this book is an interesting and informative account of that pursuit, the struggles and the competition that ensued.
It is a good oversight of the history of why we seek spices and how much of the world's story is because of spices. However, I much preferred the biography of Magellen, probably because it focused more on people and their lives rather that the technical information of spices. I also preferred "Why We Eat What We Eat."
A very scholarly look at the history and intrigue of spices. I learned a hell of a lot from this book - even though the prose was occasionally obtuse - and it will certainly serve to bring an intellectual aspect to cooking in my kitchen!
Another 'if you love to eat' book.
Indepensable for cooking, medicine, worship and the arts of love they were thought to have magicial properties.
A great reference book, that I go back to again and again.
Indepensable for cooking, medicine, worship and the arts of love they were thought to have magicial properties.
A great reference book, that I go back to again and again.
I love the color of the cover of this book: kind of a bright yet mellow tumeric. I just started it May 3. I am enjoying it a lot so far because I am learning a lot of fascinating historical/botanical facts.
Rather than a "could not finish," Spice was a "did not finish." This comprehensive tome of the history of spices is incredibly well-researched, well-written, and fascinating. I could tell that Turner was PSYCHED about spices, which--as I tell my students--made me want to keep reading. However, it is a lot of history to absorb. I recommend reading individual chapters as you would essays.
Interesting history of the European spice trade and of spice usage in Europe. It left me wondering about the history of spice usage in places like India. Let me know if you can recommend a source.
Jack Turner’s book is a broad sweep through the known history of spices from ancient usage to modern behaviours. It has a wealth of detail and many interesting facts and anecdotes surrounding the different aspects of spices. The book examines spices changing roles in food, religion, health and as a luxury throughout the ages. It also covers how spice drove exploration awhile commenting on the prevailing opinions about such trade at the time. It is dense and full of sources from many different pe...more
Jack Turner's first book is pretty amazing. The bibliography alone the stupendous. Not so much a history of spice itself but (as the subtitle suggests) more the history of what drove people to it and away from it, the narrative following spices through literature and mythology from ancient times through the middle ages.
The back cover and the hype over this book make it sound fantastic, and yet I found it to be poorly written enough to turn my interest in the subject completely off. Try for yourself.
While interesting and well researched, it sounds like Mr. Turner just kept saying the same thing over and over again. Every time I read this book it put me to sleep.
A rambling narrative history of spice and its uses in religion, cooking, preparing the dead. It is mostly ancient history but goes through the renaissance.
Fascinating history of spices. I had to stop reading about 2/3 of the way through because I just wanted to eat peppercorns every time I picked up the book.
Full of interesting facts on the importance and expense put into acquiring spices...also did not know that too much nutmeg can be fatal to humans!
I'm finally on the last chapter. This has really been a slog. It reads like a doctoral dissertation... without the excitement.
Update: page 183 -- I've thrown in the towel on this one.
Update: page 183 -- I've thrown in the towel on this one.
Super interesting and super dense. Definitely going to have to go through this again with a highlighter for future inspiration, there were just so many fantastical lines/beliefs/stories. The writing and commentary was clever without being artificially witty; history could stand on its own. One criticism is that though the chapters were organized by period (Antiquity, Medieval, Renaissance, etc.) the paragraphs and even sentences could jump around between countries and centuries, making more loca...more
Found this book to be a bit of a dry read. Read it on a Kindle.. might have been a better title in a physical copy (ability to flip to notes at the end of the chapter as you come across them).
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