Rebecca Earle, "Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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The History of Potatoes
Canyo: It is really surprising how many people were interested in potatoes. There wasn't a single important enlightenment figure who didn't say something about potatoes, he says. Ye am: So there was an increasing focus overte the late seventeenth and through the eighteenth century on the importance of having not just a large population, but of having a large, healthy, productive population as a source of national strength. Canyo: I think your chapter two, that traces um, that's called enlightened potatoes, was probably the most surprising part of thi story.
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