Rating: 
Summary: NEWSDAY July 26, 1998 A modest proposal: Eat More Spuds!
Review: "Thorough and lively....There is nothing--pardon the pun--stuffy about "The Potato": Zuckerman is an excellent storyteller, both conscientious and colloquial. The book stimulates and illuminates...Zuckerman's descriptions of traditional potato dishes are mouthwatering. He captures the nightmare of black '47 with subdued grace, and his chapter on women on the American frontier is simply wonderful, as is the entire premise of his having rooted through four centuries of history to make his point: "However ugly and prosaic the potato may be"-and you know he feels just the opposite-"hunger is far worse." --By Emily Gordon
Rating: 
Summary: Potatoi Like Hoi
Review: As I said...Someone say potato like hoi
wanna see ya little little ding like doi
If you see a little boi boi
then ya baby sister say hoi Potato. GOOD. No potato? BAD.
Someone singing la bamba in the background. Stupid mormon. I like potato. You can cook excellent beef dishes made out of corn on the blob. No I'm not talking about George.
if you can't see
you are bradley
ali ababwa...
eating 10
brainless g@y men
looking at meeeee hello
Rating: 
Summary: You Say Po-tay-to, And I Say Po-tah-to.............
Review: Don't let the corny (ouch!) title put you off: this is a serious look at the historical place of the potato in England, Ireland, France and the United States. And if you are concerned that 271 pages on the "humble spud" might put you into a stupor, you might breathe easier when you know that Mr. Zuckerman uses the potato as a starting point to examine lots of other stuff: class distinctions; agricultural landlords and tenant farmers; urbanization; women and domestic drudgery; the role of bread (ouch again!) vs. the role of the potato, etc. Mr. Zuckerman even finds the time, near the end of the book, to incorporate some philosophical musings on the positive and negative aspects of "fast-food" and its relationship to our "hurry-up society." To me, one of the best things about the book was the multi-cultural approach: it was interesting to see how much more quickly the potato caught-on in the United States than it did in France, England and Ireland (where the centuries-old custom of strict reliance on bread had to be overcome). Another interesting thing to read about was the amazement of foreign visitors concerning the variety of the American diet. We tend to forget that in Europe, in the period this book primarily deals with (1700-1900), the average person lived on bread, porridge, and soup. (One of the many interesting facts presented in this book is that up until almost 1900 most French peasants had a morning bowl of soup rather than a cup of coffee.) You were indeed fortunate if you had meat, milk, butter, eggs, coffee, etc. Even if a peasant farmer owned a cow, pig, or chicken, quite often the food products the animals supplied had to be sold, to provide some much-needed cash. The book provides a very nice combination of scholarly data(economic and sociological information) and anecdotal material. To be honest, the book was a "heavier" read than I anticipated, but the interesting "factoids" helped to lighten and liven things up. Some examples: soup was so prevalent in 19th century France that in one district it is documented that some people had wooden tables with rounded depressions carved into them. As Mr. Zuckerman writes, this "removed the need for plates and [also] any doubt about the menu."; soup was also used as a "bread-softener." Due to poor quality grain and inefficient ovens, the crust of bread was often as hard as a rock. Some people couldn't cut the bread with a knife- they had to use a saw; finally, in 19th century London a common sight was the "baked 'tato man," who sold his product from a cart on the sidewalk- similar to today's hot dog, pretzel, and chestnut vendors. But the interesting thing about the "baked 'tato man" was that, in the cold weather, he would suggest to the gentleman-half of a passing couple that he buy a baked potato to keep his sweetheart warm. The author writes, "This advice was often taken, and the potato placed inside her muff." Food for warmth, and this fine book provides much food for thought, as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not in the same league as "Cod."
Review: I was very disappointed by this book. The subtitle "How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western Word" is misleading to the extreme and appears to be an attempt to play off the subtitle of the great book about Cod "the Fish that Changed the World." Nowhere in this book is there any discussion about the Potato rescuing or even altering Western Europe in any significant way. Larry Zuckerman does make a case that the ease of growing and cooking potatoes may have led to some of the population increases between 1750 and 1850 that helped fuel the industrial revolution. But he also makes the case that over reliance on the potato made the Great Famine of 1845-49 a major European disaster. Unlike "Cod", "Potato" did not have a central theme around which to organize its narrative. Most of the material in this book appears to be anecdotal and taken from many contemporary diaries and books about food. These are interesting and worth reading. But there are too many of them and most say the same thing. The concept that "the potato almost grew without labor, was inexpensive to buy and easy to cook, and was therefore loved by the lower classes and looked down upon by the upper classes" is illustrated maybe 100 times. There is only a vague chronology. The reader is constantly jumping from Ireland to France to England to the US with a little Russia and Germany thrown in. Editorial opinions by the author eat up a large portion of the narrative. One economist was said to be "reptilian" for his cold-bloodedness. Many civic leaders were taken to task for blaming the famine on Providence and immorality, as if in the 1840s, before Pasteur and Darwin, there were any other paradigms by which to make sense of what was happening. Especially disconcerting were numerous links by the author between government policies towards relief during the famine, which in retrospect was certainly pathetic, to current American views about welfare. Ronald Reagan is criticized because he "...championed private charity, an ironic position given his family history." Given the failure of government aide during the Irish famine it appears not at all ironic that anyone such as President Reagan with Irish blood, this reviewer included, would trust individual responsibility more than a distant bureaucracy. Had the author let the facts speak for themselves he would have made a persuasive case for government intervention. By the author being so heavy handed, this reviewer came to believe it likely that the anecdotal evidence was chosen to fit the author's opinions rather than to create those opinions. The book "Cod" opens describing an incredible environmental disaster yet never lectures us or needed to invoke contemporary politicians to make its case. While reading "Potato" I remember thinking it remarkable that this book could be so politically correct without focusing on women. A few pages later I reached the chapter "Women's Work" which pretty much described the kitchen as the Black hole of American womanhood. Typical complaints were that 1) men built kitchens without understanding the needs of women, 2) men would hire extra field hands for the harvest but most women could not hire extra hands for additional cooking and 3) the cast iron-stove (which most women in the world would die for, as they would for a kitchen) by making it possible to bake, boil and simmer different dishes, greatly increased a woman's workload. The potato is barely mentioned in this chapter except to repeat the mantra that the potato saved American women from hard labor because it was economical and easy to cook. This would have been a much stronger book had the author refrained from so many personal opinions and kept using so many anecdotes saying the same thing. It should have been half the current length. I wish more use had been made of objective statistics and relief efforts placed in the context of what had been done prior to the Great Famine. England may have been guilty of all sorts of sins against Ireland but given the devastation of four years of complete famine, when almost all grain crops failed, it is hard to see what England could have done differently at the time. Unanswered is the question- since starvation was everywhere in Europe, where was England to get the food to feed Ireland? All the alms and jewelry and pounds of sterling in the Bank of England couldn't buy food if there was none to be bought. This book had some statistics but they seemed there more to back the author's opinion rather than to ascertain what really happened. This book did an excellent job of describing how potatoes fit into everyday life. I had expected more.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not in the same league as "Cod."
Review: I was very disappointed by this book. The subtitle "How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western Word" is misleading to the extreme and appears to be an attempt to play off the subtitle of the great book about Cod "the Fish that Changed the World." Nowhere in this book is there any discussion about the Potato rescuing or even altering Western Europe in any significant way. Larry Zuckerman does make a case that the ease of growing and cooking potatoes may have led to some of the population increases between 1750 and 1850 that helped fuel the industrial revolution. But he also makes the case that over reliance on the potato made the Great Famine of 1845-49 a major European disaster. Unlike "Cod", "Potato" did not have a central theme around which to organize its narrative. Most of the material in this book appears to be anecdotal and taken from many contemporary diaries and books about food. These are interesting and worth reading. But there are too many of them and most say the same thing. The concept that "the potato almost grew without labor, was inexpensive to buy and easy to cook, and was therefore loved by the lower classes and looked down upon by the upper classes" is illustrated maybe 100 times. There is only a vague chronology. The reader is constantly jumping from Ireland to France to England to the US with a little Russia and Germany thrown in. Editorial opinions by the author eat up a large portion of the narrative. One economist was said to be "reptilian" for his cold-bloodedness. Many civic leaders were taken to task for blaming the famine on Providence and immorality, as if in the 1840s, before Pasteur and Darwin, there were any other paradigms by which to make sense of what was happening. Especially disconcerting were numerous links by the author between government policies towards relief during the famine, which in retrospect was certainly pathetic, to current American views about welfare. Ronald Reagan is criticized because he "...championed private charity, an ironic position given his family history." Given the failure of government aide during the Irish famine it appears not at all ironic that anyone such as President Reagan with Irish blood, this reviewer included, would trust individual responsibility more than a distant bureaucracy. Had the author let the facts speak for themselves he would have made a persuasive case for government intervention. By the author being so heavy handed, this reviewer came to believe it likely that the anecdotal evidence was chosen to fit the author's opinions rather than to create those opinions. The book "Cod" opens describing an incredible environmental disaster yet never lectures us or needed to invoke contemporary politicians to make its case. While reading "Potato" I remember thinking it remarkable that this book could be so politically correct without focusing on women. A few pages later I reached the chapter "Women's Work" which pretty much described the kitchen as the Black hole of American womanhood. Typical complaints were that 1) men built kitchens without understanding the needs of women, 2) men would hire extra field hands for the harvest but most women could not hire extra hands for additional cooking and 3) the cast iron-stove (which most women in the world would die for, as they would for a kitchen) by making it possible to bake, boil and simmer different dishes, greatly increased a woman's workload. The potato is barely mentioned in this chapter except to repeat the mantra that the potato saved American women from hard labor because it was economical and easy to cook. This would have been a much stronger book had the author refrained from so many personal opinions and kept using so many anecdotes saying the same thing. It should have been half the current length. I wish more use had been made of objective statistics and relief efforts placed in the context of what had been done prior to the Great Famine. England may have been guilty of all sorts of sins against Ireland but given the devastation of four years of complete famine, when almost all grain crops failed, it is hard to see what England could have done differently at the time. Unanswered is the question- since starvation was everywhere in Europe, where was England to get the food to feed Ireland? All the alms and jewelry and pounds of sterling in the Bank of England couldn't buy food if there was none to be bought. This book had some statistics but they seemed there more to back the author's opinion rather than to ascertain what really happened. This book did an excellent job of describing how potatoes fit into everyday life. I had expected more.
Rating:
Summary: clever, poignant and educational
Review: Never would I have guessed, before discovering Larry Zuckerman's book, that I could be so moved to laugh and learn while reading about a vegetable. His personal, palatable presentation of social history enlightened me with a truer understanding of my Irish roots(!), as much as it entertained.
Rating:
Summary: A book as good as curly fries.
Review: Not only interesting, quirky, informative, and entertaining, but the author's vivid descriptions of life in early agricultural communities in Ireland and France make a 28 hour layover at LaGuardia seem like paradise.
Rating:
Summary: The lowly spud?
Review: Nothing could be more boring than the potato. Well maybe not. Larry Zuckerman in the, Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World takes the lowly tuber to new heights. Being of Irish and Anglo Irish extraction, the great famine has always struck a chord with me. I've read Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett which brings home the horror of the famine but I've always been a bit puzzled about it. It is hard living in the age of plenty to understand this event. Why not eat something else if the potato crop goes bad and skip the fries and just eat the Big Mac? Zuckerman's fine book explains the inner workings of the famine. A loaf of white bread could cost most of a days wages leaving nothing else for rent, clothes, or other necessities. The potato was a miracle crop. It would grow where most other crops failed. It was almost a complete diet and provided the much needed vitamin C. It was not labor intensive like grain and did not require an oven, which very few could afford. The book covers a lot more than the famine and is a wealth of detail about the lowly tuber. Ministers decried it and blamed the Irish population boom on its supposed aphrodisiac qualities. The potato was originally grown for beasts and by definition was unfit for humans. It was easy to grow so therefore encouraged laziness, thus confirming English suspicions. It was not mentioned in the Bible so add one more strike against it. The Potato is anything but boring. After you've read, it you'll never look at a potato the same way again. I'd love to see Zuckerman do the same treatment on rice.
Rating:
Summary: A strong case for potato power.
Review: One of the interesting things Zuckerman notes in this four century social history is the hard time the venerable vegetable has had in the court of public opinion over the years. Such holdovers from days gone by exist in modern pejorative terms like "couch potato" and "potato head." Nonetheless, valuable insights can be learned from this book, and students of history as well as education can glean useful nuggets for their disciplines. Originally a product of the New World, the potato was slow in gaining acceptance in Europe. Interestingly, one of the reasons for its slow acceptance was the fact that it grew in the ground. Falling under the category of "nightshade," superstitious peasants were loathe to eat it. Conversely, after the Irish began consuming it in mass, and their population exploded, it was opined that potatoes perhaps assisted virility. Wheat, barley, and rye were more established crops, and Zuckerman examines the slow inroads potatoes made in France, England, Ireland, and eventually America. The French were encouraged to supplement their crops with the tuber by Antoine Augustin Parmentier throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Parmentier made acceptance of the potato and the abolition of various negative myths surrounding it one of his callings in life. In England, food was accorded rank among the classes, as were many other aspects of British life. Since the upper classes ate only wheat bread, the poor insisted on the same, and efforts to supplement the diet of both were many years in progressing. Most intriguing were government efforts to influence the growth of various crops. In Ireland, potatoes had a slightly easier time when it was discovered they could easily be prepared and eaten, and the scraps could help feed livestock. But the country which accepted potatoes most readily, with few problems concerning superstition and class envy, was the United States. Somewhere in there is a generalization that can be drawn concerning the "bold experiment" and her colonial parents. Ultimately, of course, potatoes helped cushion the impact of famines in Europe. Later when populaces were more dependant on the tuber and the potato crops failed, wide-scale starvation ensued, often triggering mass migrations to America. In the end, Zuckerman makes a strong case for the power the potato has wielded on European and American civilization. Without it, the entire course of our recent history would not be the same.
Rating:
Summary: #2 fast food choice USA market
Review: Potato is so versatile, It is #2 add-on at Fest Food chains, & superbly carved by chefs also. Should be supplemental reading all culinary school students... Will sell well in Idaho
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