Apparently innocuous, sugar is a substance which brings with it a profound disquiet, not least because of its direct links with the histories of slavery in the New World. These links have long been a source of critical fascination, generating several landmark analyses, ranging from Fernando Ortis's Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (1940) and No l Deerr's monumental two-volume The History of Sugar (1949-50) to Sidney Mintz's Sweetness and Power:...