Slaves for Peanuts
Book description
Winner, James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship
A stunning work of popular history-the story of how a crop transformed the history of slavery
Americans consume over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut products every year. But few of us know the peanut's tumultuous history, or its intimate…
Why read it?
1 author picked Slaves for Peanuts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Before, when I saw a peanut, I’d think of the circus or a baseball game. But this book taught me how such an unassuming legume became central to Senegal’s experiences of colonialism, forced labor, and war.
For me, this was particularly eye-opening reading—I visited Dakar some years ago, quickly becoming enamored with the place. Yet the connections in this title were still mostly unknown to me.
Balancing an impressive haul of research with her knack for lush, immersive descriptions, Lewis deftly illustrates how slavery and its evils coevolved with peanut production across continents, cultures, and centuries.
If you love Slaves for Peanuts...
The Coaching Habit
The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.
It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. Brené Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".
It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher,…
Want books like Slaves for Peanuts?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Slaves for Peanuts.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,588
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Slaves for Peanuts, you might also like...
Uniting the States of America
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and…
Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS
When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more…
