Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind

by Henry Hobhouse

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Food, Nature, Plants, Microhistory

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Henry Hobhouse (24 December 1924 – 5 March 2016), was an English sailor, broadcaster, journalist, farmer, author, and politician

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

some decent history here, which i usually dont have a taste for. the author's british boarding school attitude looking down at the rest of the world (and occasionally critically at his own) can be distastefull at times (i guarantee you'll be surprised by the bold generalizations of some of his pronouncements. for instance, one sentence begins "Though the Arabs had and still have a very low opinion of actual physical work..."
those kinds of things crop up throughout the book, but in general you just learn that he's kind of a grump, who had enough money to spend his life writing and doing research in the grand scholarly tradition. And most of the book bears the fruit of that time spent.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally read Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind, a book I was given years ago because of my love of food history and world history. It’s incredibly well researched and detailed, and while I’m sure I didn’t retain everything, I found every chapter compelling.

It starts so positively with quinine — a plant that saved countless lives — and then moves into the much sadder histories of plants tied to human devastation: sugar and cotton, built on slavery; tea, intertwined with the British forcing opium on China; coca (need I say more?); and the potato, bound up with profound suffering in Ireland.

I’m really glad I finally read this book — enjoyed while drinking my favorite green tea!!

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the premise and approach he used: important plants, their products and influence on history. As a biologist, I imagine this concept could be taken further; Animals of ...; Snakes of ... (politicians included); Lakes that Changed the World. But I digress.

The author draws interesting conclusions about human history from the roles that he infers these plants played. Since most of the history he illuminates, I have long since forgotten, it was informative although perhaps not as provocative as some might think. Of course, the section on Cotton and the U.S. South will no doubt raise some hackles since the issues are still too close to the quick. Most of it was fairly straight-forward argument but this is not a forte for a certain part of the American psyche.

I found the Potato section most interesting. His thesis about free trade theory and the famines of Ireland were insightful and thought provoking.

Each plant section was short enough to be readable in one sitting. However, the author writes elongated sentences with structures that were frequently difficult to disentangle without re-reading (see Quotes below p. 156 for example). I found this style to be reminiscent of Victorian writing. This is why I didn't give it a 5-star.

Quotes
p. 21 "...damning with faint praise,..." ah yes indeed, the art of the feint

Sugar p. 45 "Candy is dandy, liquor is quicker." attributed to Ogden Nash (news to me but of course completely believable)

p. 51 "Though Arabs had and still have a very low opinion of actual physical work, they were excellent planners, managers and agriculturalists." Dubious in Dubai; Stop at the comma and insert Academics instead of Arabs.

Cotton p. 156 "The distinct feature of American life is not the nobility of the Founding Fathers, nor freedom from the arbitrary rule of kings, nor escape from the tyranny of Europe, both secular and religious. Nome of these desirable attributes would ever have been achieved if the key had not existed: a relatively empty continent. ... Cheap, virtually empty, fertile land had more influence upon the early settlers than all the rhetoric of all the politicians who have ever inspired, amused, or saddened an American audience, and has shaped the American character more than any other factor."

p. 161 "...the American South the first self-supporting, self-breeding slave system the world had ever known." ...well speaking of faint praise ;-)

p. 165 "There is a certain school of historians in the United States that sets out to prove that slavery was more efficient than free labor." debunked by " a fivefold increase in the value of the slave against that of the bale of cotton."

[Ishmael · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sometimes-interesting book which unfortunately reads like it was written by Jacob Rees-Mogg's godfather.

Wait... what?

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 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.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

September 2021
I wouldn't say that this book is completely awful and that nobody should read it, I just personally don't think that this is the style that I like. This book is based in the future about 20 years from now and it has a lot of subchapters sort of like multiple different stories in one cover. All of those stories are about futuristic, partially unrealistic and bizarre things. I think that the genre that describes this book the best is science fiction and for the people that admire futuristic and hypothetical books then this book might be fit right for them. What I didn't like about this book is that it is very repetitive and it gets really boring in some places. I don't necessarily like that all the chapters are unlinked, and I also found it really difficult in some places to define a clear plot of the book

[Francisco Viliesid · Rating 5 out of 5]

An "old" (1985) and yet current (2005 edition, and not much has changed by now, i.e. 2020) historical study on certain plants, or seeds therefrom, which have undoubtedly played a prime role in the historical development of World civilization. Enjoyable, though I had a personal hard time through some passages, as they are very detailed and thoroughly developed, but it certainly makes for better understanding of the viewpoint. It is always refreshing to look at world history from alternative viewpoints, like "Napoleon's Buttons" (Le Couteur & Burreson), for example, or "Collapse" (Jared Diamond).

[Miroslav Mlinarček · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veoma zanimljiva tema i ovo je svakako knjiga iz koje se može mnogo toga novog naučiti. Na prvi pogled, samo obične biljke... a u stvari, imale su veliki uticaj na tok istorije.
Ono što bih zamerio ovoj knjizi je stil pisanja autora. Kao istoričar, volim da čitam o nekoj temi koja izlaže događaje hronološki ali ovde to nije slučaj. U svakom slučaju to ne umanjuje kvalitet knjige i činjenica koje autor iznosi. Preporuka za istoričare i one koji vole istoriju iz malo drugačijeg ugla (ne samo kroz ratove, vojskovođe i velike bitke).

[Laura Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

So there is a lot of interesting information in this book, but...
The author's personal prejudices come out loud and clear over and over again. His opinions definitely get in the way of his analyses. An outrageous example is his claim that the Irish famine was caused mostly by their overbreeding and overpopulating and adds a short side note about absent landlords and almost ignores the role the British played in the famine. AND I found the references to NOT line up with his citation notes when I would look. Overall that makes me question many assertions in the book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This went into great detail about the economic impact on countries and spent a great deal of time giving historical context for the impact. It made for dense and slow reading for me but it was fascinating. It covered far different ground from Pollan's Botany of Desire even though they both chose the potato. If you like one, you will probably like the other, especially if Pollan's book left you wanting more history or if you read this one first and find it a little too stuffy.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 42% I was disappointed in this book. It was just so boring. Even a section that I couldn't wait to get to (tea and the destruction of China) wasn't interesting. The reason is because the book continually went off into just general history to the point where I was asking myself what this chapter was even about. And maybe I wouldn't have even minded the seemingly unrelated history so much if it was told in an interesting way. But it was basically like reading a history textbook

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this along time ago, but didn't write a review because I was unsure how I felt about it. I think the author has a good premise, but he didn't quite bring his research and analysis up to the present. And, that seemed like a failing.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always interesting to see how (relatively) mundane items can affect cultures and the history of the world. It would be curious to see how different life would be without the advent/popularization of quinine, tea, sugar, cotton, potatoes, and cocoa.

[Milica R · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐ 2.5

Knjiga je zanimljiva u delovima koji su bazirani na činjenicama, mada autor na mnogim mestima pogrešno tumači ili banalizuje činjenice. Svi delovi u kojima autor iznosi svoja poredjenja, mišljenja, nagadjanja i teorije su loši do očajni.

[Nital Jethalal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnny Appleseed sounded like quite the character

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, really. Skipped the chapter on Coca because it was too much Hobhouse and not enough history at the start. Otherwise, enlightening and amazing to read.

[Leanna Aker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea for a book.... more history than I was expecting, a bit of an antiquated perspective and biases from the author. Started skimming chapters to finish about halfway through.

[Ranette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wall-written book about foods that traveled the world and changed our eating habits.

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read this book in the past want to revisit it

[Strider · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a great idea to write the history through the stories of six plant. Six plants that we take today for granted but which had such a big influence to humankind.

[Grace Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An erudite, politically conservative review of the effects of trade (aka plants) through the last few hundred years. Well done.

[Revanth Ukkalam]

Written almost entirely from the Anglo-American perspective. Way too teleological for today.

[Alison Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. This book has stayed with me since I read it more than ten years ago.

[Erin Coleman · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me almost 3 years to finish this book.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revealing and fascinating book
and/or
A catalogue of the crimes of the white man.

Essentially 6 documentaries reminiscent of James Burke's 1970's 'Connections' TV series.
Mr Hobhouse begins each chapter from several starting points, and weaves from such disparate beginnings a complex and informative narrative/biography exploring the formative nature of one of six economically important "..largely tropical plants, which, after being transferred to countries other than their native habitats, became important to the new producer and to the consumer in many unusual ways. Yet their real significance was in their side effects upon the humans who became involved with their production, distribution or exchange"

The emphasis is on the ensuing socio economic repercussions of trade and cultural intervention and the facts speak for themselves; White European colonialism, portrayed in an unbiased light, is shown to be, at the very least responsible for more exploitation and criminality than any cultural or economic enrichment.
Whilst some of the tales are woven from established chains of causality and fact, some of the interpretation of initial conditions or later consequences are inevitably more open to interpretation. The end product is a thought provoking attempt to examine and assess the predisposition of these cultures to the introduction of the various plants as well as the socio-economic culture that their production and trade created.
For example, the cost in human life and suffering of African Slavery is here calculated at 1 African life to supply 250 people with sugar per year, dysfunctional cultures like Haiti the Confederate South are explained, or the state of the nation resulting from Anglo Irish relations prior to the introduction of the potato is shown to have enabled it's introduction. On this point there are few books that I have read that correctly interprets the conflict between English and Irish cultures as an inherent clash of race, ie Celtic v Saxon rather than religion; protestant v Catholic.

This is top class historical commentary.
Educational, stimulating and very readable.

To summarise the chapters;

Quinine

It's discovery as a treatment for malaria opened up whole areas of the globe previously uninhabitable to everybody but the already immune African Negro, whilst attempts to synthesis it's active ingredients led to the discovery of various dyes, vaccines and cures. facilitated Western European Colonialism

Tea

A catalyst to several wars with China, France, Spain and the Netherlands, plus the American war of independence, the creation of the opium trade as a mechanism to bi pass Chinese attempts to manage their affairs in foreign exports and the consequent alienation of China and Japan from relations with 'Western Europeans' as well as the abuse and destruction of the ancient and highly civilised Chinese culture.

Sugar

Incurred the loss of countless African lives through a slave trade created to feed western Europe's demand, which is tantamount to an addiction.
Used as the economic basis for whole colonial cultures where indigenous populations were wiped out and replaced by a master/slave society: A pattern of exploitation, mismanagement or abuse of whole societies and economies follows; a legacy which remains in the Caribbean

Cotton

The whole Southern confederacy's slave economy, as above, based upon a monoculture and intimately linked to English industrialisation and working class poverty. A story full of irony: at the time of the civil war, the American South's most valuable asset was it's slave population not it's cotton fields.

Potato

Similarly, the problems incurred when a suppressed and persecuted population is kept at subsistence level or made to depend upon an agricultural monoculture.Irish culture suffered American culture gained.

Coca

After centuries of use without problem or issue by Amerindians, is purified and abused by the white man and turned into a world wide social problem and the basis for a highly lucrative and corrupt criminal sub culture.

[Wichitacountry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like what he said about tea and called the theft of tea as the greatest heist.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quinine, sugar, tea, cotton, and the cocoa plant are his plants of choice to represent the changes in power structure between the dominating Europeans and their colonial conquests. Quinine for opening up the tropics to a level of domination not previously possible. This was directly responsible for the sugar, rum, slave triangle that grew from the development of the new colonies. Cotton was added to the slave trade with American growth. Finally comes the drug trade based on the cocoa plant.

This is one view, and a highly personal view, of how plants as medicaments food and as addictive elements have driven the social changes. Hobhouse clearly classes sugar as an addictive substance and in the sense that humans have no regulatory feedback to limit the intake then yes humans do succumb to the drive for high energy food intake with as much damage today as if it was toxic substance.
Humans were once rate limited by high energy nutrients so needed no feedback to specify sufficient intake. That is now longer true. Today the selection pressure is towards those who have some variation in behavior or biochemistry that stops or slows the drive to consume as much high energy food as possible. Hobhouse has little or no understanding of evolutionary processes.

I do agree with his assessment of the importance of quinine and feel the work on that segment relating sylvichemicals to social change is the best section. His text on the rum, sugar, slave triangle is not as well based. It was perhaps far to large a subject to be merely a segment so suffered from over simplification. He spent far more time on social ans economic dynamics that appeal to a botanist and far to little to support any real evaluation of the actual social and economic pressures. This section fails by falling into the gap between two ends Hobhouse was torn between. He should have stayed with the botanical evidence. The resulting book wavers and is vague on some things while being prejudicial on other counts.
The concept is good and begins better than it ends.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoyed Jared Dimond's "Guns, Germs and Steel"--particularly the early chapters which deal with the influence of plant and animal life on the rise of civilization--you will probably find much to recommend this book, which explores the causative role of six plants on history. The plants chosen are quinine, sugar, tea, cotton, potatoes, and coca although many other candidates come readily to mind, e.g., pepper, nutmeg, soy, tulips, orchids.
The author' style is engaging and informative, and he includes several extended digressions which are particularly appealing. For example, the section on potatoes contains a discussion of the pros and cons of free trade, and the portion on coca contains a history of the Coca-Cola company and the likely contents of the earliest versions of that drink. He also injects some pertinent open-ended questions--the "what-if's" of history--which are quite thought-provoking. If we are indeed in a period of climatic change--and I believe we are--the effects on plant life may offer some of the earliest and most profound evidence; history from this perspective may be more important than ever. Note: My copy of this book is a slipcased Folio Society reprint of the 1999 edition which has been updated by the author. It has a beautiful cover, quality paper, and a pleasing heft to it. If you appreciate books as "things," this one is a treat. Also, it was not filled with the increasingly common and annoying typographical errors that have become so common; I didn't notice even one!

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

what I learned from this book: That once again, bad science trumps actual science, and that books filled with bad science also don't actually have characters. Oh wait, I already knew that.

Um, um, um ok. Right. So, there's this other earth right and it exists in the same space as our earth right but in a different time so um um and ok then there's an accident and the people learn to come through from earth to earth and like um its really exciting and um um um and then they have to come from earth to earth by KILLING PEOPLE with RADIATION and its really scary and all these people die and there's this dude named Snow Wolf and he's kind of scary and mean but he's a hero right and saves people and then there are these two guys from other-earth and they're named Vpaad and Barry, (Barry? Seriously?) but then they die and then smart scientists use photon pressure to separate the two earths and everyone lives happily ever after except for all the people on the over-populated other-earth and all the people in all the cities that they destroyed in their war like New York and Philadelphia and Chicago the end.

Even by crappy sci-fi standards this book was truly awful. Don't read it. Please, save yourself.

[Lawrence Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was at the start impressed by the knowledge and the reasoning which the writer developed to substantiate his theories but his almost goading of people with other opinions by the end of the last section turned me off. Maybe I am one of the "politically correct" or maybe I found no rational in his view of the death penalty or maybe I need to visit Singapore and find this crime free society. Where on earth does he think huge amounts of laundered monies end up? However, there are some excellent passages on how man has used his fellow man to the point of near extermination to produce wealth.
It is a pity that this otherwise impressive book is littered with aspects and subsections that are a bit off the point. Also, some of the broadsides at particular ethnic groups might be the writer's views but they are still offensive in the extreme.