Brett Wallack

HIS3600

Prof. Farless

22 June 2024

Marcy Norton, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010)

Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures by Marcy Norton is an analytical deep dive into the history of tobacco and chocolate in the New World and how it affected those from the Old World who came upon it. Norton’s inspiration for this book is drawn from a question, “What exactly did it mean for Europeans; bound as they were to an ideology that insisted on their religious and cultural supremacy, to become consumers of goods that they knew were so enmeshed in the religious practices of the “pagan savages” who they conquered?”1 Norton, through stringing together the proper evidence, provides a timeline on these two commodities that went from having sacred and cultural origins to the European symbols of wealth and indulgence.

                Some of the main important points that Norton explores within this book start with the cultural transformation of tobacco and chocolate. What started as sacred gifts from indigenous people eventually became old world commodities and staples in European society and culture. Norton then talks deeply about the Transatlantic Exchange and how the separate New World and Old World coalesced in fusing cultures, ideologies, and products together and traded with each other. The final main point to note is that Norton discusses heavily the pivotal role of colonialism and how these products and their use and preparation changed as they became intertwined in European lives.

                The author of Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures, Marcy Norton, is a historian and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She specialized in the history of the early modern Atlantic World, with a focus on Latin America and Spain2. Over her career, Norton has spent extensive time researching and analyzing cross-cultural interaction and specifically had spent ample time within the topics of tobacco and chocolate. Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures acts as her personal opus and displays the great depths she went in learning about these exchanges during this time.

                Atop her already impressive accolades, Norton did not skimp on research when creating this book as nearly each and every page contains a multitude of primary sources, such as letters written by Spanish explorers Hernan Cortes and Bernal Diaz del Castillo describing accounts of native utilization of tobacco and chocolate as well as countless reports from missionaries such as Bernardino de Sahagun discussing the customs of the indigenous and how colonists adopted to their usage of tobacco3.

                What book reviewers Jane Shaw Stroup4 and review collective GoodReads5 saw as “superior and fascinating” and a product from the efforts of “enormous research (12 years worth)” , Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures offers a masterful reinterpretation of the history of tobacco and chocolate and it’s emphasis on the mutual influence and cultural exchange between the indigenous people of the New World and the European colonists of the Old World. Through Norton’s efforts in research, we now have a greater fundamental understanding of early global interaction.

Brett Wallack

HIS3600-CW60

Prof. Farless

12 July 2024

Critique 2:

               In my American History class (AMH2020), we discussed the 1932 presidential election and how President Hoover, who just one term prior had the unified American people behind him in a landslide win over Al Smith in 1928, lost in a massive landslide to Franklin D. Roosevelt. But how, with someone who attained such consensus amongst the American people, lose the faith of the people and the voters to such a massive degree in just 4 years?

               Martin Carcasson, a professor at Colorado State University and Texas A&M in the speech communication department and a member of the National Civic League on Public Engagement, lays down a detailed breakdown on what caused such a massive pendulum swing in trust for President Hoover.

               Carcasson begins by addressing the elephant in the room, The Great Depression. Never in American History (besides wars) had their been an unexpected event or catastrophe that completely changes the course of an election and the wants of the American People. Carcasson believes that a huge part in what led to Hoover losing the belief of Americans was not from an action standpoint, but rather, a rhetorical standpoint (Carcasson 349). President Hoover believed in the idea of “rugged individualism” , this idea that, we, as American individuals, are responsible for our well being and own success without any reliance on government intervention (Carcasson 349-350). Hoover imagined America as a place where if you wanted better circumstances in your life, then you should work hard and put in the hours to earn it. This idea was viewed very positively by the people of America at the time, especially during the roaring 20’s when the United States was in great economic health and the future was looking bright.

               Hoover was so confident in the country, in fact, that his presence and voice to the people wasn’t really important to him, and President Hoover very rarely addressed the nation during his term (Carcasson 349) and on even rarer occasions, spoke to the people of America on the Radio. This wasn’t a problem to the American people until 1929, when the American economy came crashing to the ground. With a nation in shambles awaiting a leader to save them, Hoover failed to have the heroic presence the people yearned for.

               So when FDR entered the scene with the rhetoric that the people need a leader, and their voice should be heard, he stole the hearts of the nation. He appeared publicly far more frequently than Hoover on the campaign trail and had an approach of giving “fireside chats and emotional leadership” (Carcasson 349) and he appeared regularly on the Radio. Having the ability to not only read what your (potential) President was saying, but actually be able to hear them, especially during a dire time, was so emotionally captivating and it’s what led to FDR securing a monumental win over the current sitting president.

               Martin Carcasson was spot on with his analysis of this election and his utilization of direct quotation and concrete evidence from each president’s campaign trail help secure this idea as the leading theory to what caused such a massive swing in American voters. I do believe that this article and this election as a whole is something very important to understand since our last election of 2020 was the first time since then where an outside event, Covid, completely became the forefront of American concern. I ultimately believe that the pandemic’s scenario is what won Joe Biden office.