THE AMAZING POTATO
by Milton Meltzer
Meltzer's long subtitle—"A Story in Which the Incas, Conquistadors, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, Wars, Famines, Immigrants, and French Fries All Play a Part"—suggests the range of his latest fascinating exploration of social history. Covering the potato's nutritional value and economic importance, its early culture and the superstitions that attended its spread, the terrible consequences of Ireland's potato famine and the effect in the US of the attendant migration, and even some methods of cooking this versatile vegetable, Meltzer skillfully dramatizes the interrelationships among different fields of knowledge and the far-reaching effects a single species can have on the fortunes of mankind. (Nonfiction. 9+)