Story of Corn - Softcover

Fussell, Betty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865475458 ISBN 13: 9780865475458

Publisher: North Point Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Discusses the history, mythology, and cultivation of corn; describes its place in Indian folklore and culture; and explains how it is grown today

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Like its subject, The Story of Corn is a unique hybrid, drawing upon history and mythology, science and art, anecdote and image, personal narrative and epic, to tell the extraordinary story of the grain that built the New World. Indeed, corn transformed the way the whole world eats, providing both a hardy, inexpensive alternative to rice or wheat and cheap fodder for livestock. And, with its mercurial genetic structure, it found its way into everything from explosives to embalming fluid. As Fussell writes, "Corn made the whole world kin."

But the story of corn is essentially an American saga, entwining the histories--and often clashing worldviews--of the indigenous peoples who first cultivated the grain and the European conquerors who appropriated and then propagated it around the globe. With characteristic wit and passion, Fussell explores its roles as food and fetish, crop and commodity, to the peoples who for seven centuries have planted, consumed, worshiped, processed, and profited from it. If corn makes the whole world kin, in Fussell's eloquent account it also reveals the inherent tragedy of our tribalism.

From the Inside Flap:

This interweaving of folklore, history, and science tells the seven-century story of the importance of corn in the Americas.

About this edition

• Publisher: North Point Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0865475458
• ISBN 13: 9780865475458
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368