Maize and Grace

Maize and Grace
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 304
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674040748
ISBN-13 : 0674040740
Rating : 4/5 (48 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Maize and Grace by : James C. McCann

Download or read book Maize and Grace written by James C. McCann and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2007-09-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometime around 1500 AD, an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. That act set in motion the remarkable saga of one of the world’s most influential crops—one that would transform the future of Africa and of the Atlantic world. Africa’s experience with maize is distinctive but also instructive from a global perspective: experts predict that by 2020 maize will become the world’s most cultivated crop. James C. McCann moves easily from the village level to the continental scale, from the medieval to the modern, as he explains the science of maize production and explores how the crop has imprinted itself on Africa’s agrarian and urban landscapes. Today, maize accounts for more than half the calories people consume in many African countries. During the twentieth century, a tidal wave of maize engulfed the continent, and supplanted Africa’s own historical grain crops—sorghum, millet, and rice. In the metamorphosis of maize from an exotic visitor into a quintessentially African crop, in its transformation from vegetable to grain, and from curiosity to staple, lies a revealing story of cultural adaptation. As it unfolds, we see how this sixteenth-century stranger has become indispensable to Africa’s fields, storehouses, and diets, and has embedded itself in Africa’s political, economic, and social relations. The recent spread of maize has been alarmingly fast, with implications largely overlooked by the media and policymakers. McCann’s compelling history offers insight into the profound influence of a single crop on African culture, health, technological innovation, and the future of the world’s food supply.


Maize and Grace Related Books

Maize and Grace
Language: en
Pages: 304
Authors: James C. McCann
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-09-15 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sometime around 1500 AD, an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. That act set in motion the remarkable saga of one of the world’s
Seeing Like a Citizen
Language: en
Pages: 341
Authors: Kara Moskowitz
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-11-12 - Publisher: Ohio University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Seeing Like a Citizen, Kara Moskowitz approaches Kenya’s late colonial and early postcolonial eras as a single period of political, economic, and social tr
The Scarcity Slot
Language: en
Pages: 244
Authors: Amanda L. Logan
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-12-08 - Publisher: University of California Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security
Daily Graphic
Language: en
Pages: 16
Authors: Elizabeth Ohene
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1980-03-22 - Publisher: Graphic Communications Group

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Food and Identity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Ghana
Language: en
Pages: 319
Authors: Brandi Simpson Miller
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-01-11 - Publisher: Springer Nature

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates how cooking, eating, and identity are connected to the local micro-climates in each of Ghana’s major eco-culinary zones. The work is ba