Western peoples consume enormous per capita quantities of refined sugar because, to most people, very sweet foods taste very good. The existence of the human sweet tooth can be explained, ultimately, as an adaptation of ancestral populations to favor the ripest-and hence the sweetest-fruit. In other words, the selective pressures of times past are most strikingly revealed by the ar

The readiness of working people to work harder in order to be able to earn-and thus consume-more was a crucial feature of the evolution of modern patterns of eating. A new commercial spirit had to recognize this readiness, perceiving it as a virtue to be encouraged and exploited. Unleashing that spirit accompanied great changes in the economic and political order, which transformed English agrarian life, "freed" the rural population, led to the conquest and harnessing of the tropical colonies, and resulted in the introduction of new comestibles into the motherland. My argument is that the heightened consumption of goods like sucrose was the direct consequence of deep alterations in the lives of working people, which made new forms of foods and eating conceivable and "natural" like new schedules of work, new sorts of labor and new conditions of daily life (Pg.180-181).

He explains the relationship between production and consumption and also how sugar went from a luxury to a common necessity of all people. Then in chapter four, Mintz exploits the connection between sugar and power. Finally, in chapter five he explains sugar's current place in modern society, which he clearly states in this quote: "My hope is that I have identified problems of significance concerning which fieldwork might eventually yield results useful for both theory and policy" (Pg. XXX of introduction). His final chapter presents another goal for book as a whole. Seeing that he wrote the book not strictly for the anthropological community, and his final chapter is partially for identifying "problems" in anthropological fieldwork, then he may be trying to draw others who had not had previous experiences with similar topics into the historical realm.

To begin to understand and evaluate Mintz's Sweetness and Power, one must first understand who his book is aimed toward, in other words, his audience. In Jack Goody's New York Times review of the book, he suggests that this book is not just for anthropologists: "Sweetness and Power is a fine book. It not only tells a fascinating story, it is also something of an antidote to the static quality of much anthropological writing." Yet another review of Mintz's book from J. H. Elliott of The New York Review of Books states: "This measured, intelligent, ambitious book has something for everybody....Mintz opens a whole series of doors onto rich and unsuspected worlds." This shows, from two different sources in fact, that this book is not simply limited to the confines of the anthropological community and interested scholars. It is really suited for any semi-educated person who would find an interest in Mintz's studies. Just the fact that one could find this book in nearly bookstore is a testament of how wide a market Mintz is aiming at. It seems that Sweetness and Power is targeted at anyone between from the semi-educated (i.e. student) to the highly specialized professional (i.e. others within the same field of study).

With such an obsession with sweet foods, there is an obvious desire for an explanation of how such a once unknown substance took center stage on everybody's snack, dessert, and candy list. That's where Sidney W. Mintz comes into play. He decided to write this book Sweetness and Power, and from the looks of all the sources he used to substantiate his ideas and data, it seems that he is not the first person to find the role that sugar plays in modern society important. By analyzing who Mintz's audience is meant to be, what goals he has in writing this book, what structure his book incorporates, what type, or types, of history he represents within the book, what kind of sources he uses, and what important information and conclusions he presents, we can come to better understand Mintz's views and research of the role of sugar in history, and how much it really affects our lives as we know them.

The English ruling class did recognize the readiness Mintz speaks about and exploited it.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sweetness Power, Pg180-181 English, Chapter Power, , Audrey Richards, Pg XXX, Mintz English, Afterward Mintz, West Mintz's, Americans American, production consumption, sweetness power, control sugar, sugar production, modern society, english people, proletarian class, sugar industry, mintz page, associated sugar, throughout entire book, mintz's sweetness power, sugar passage mintz, sugar production spread, english ruling class,
Approximate Word count = 3961
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)