Andy Warner’s Oddball Histories: Spices and Spuds

Did you know that plants helped shape our modern world?

It may sound ridiculous, but empires have risen and fallen because of stuff you'd find in your grocery store's vegetable aisle. Through wars, famine, prosperity, and more, every aspect of our lives and livelihoods has something to do with plants!

Whether or not you notice them, plants are as central to our day-to-day lives as a bowl of rice or a plate of pasta, and they have shaped our history the same way a gardener trims a topiary.

Did you know that a pepper blockade led to the Age of Exploration? How about that huge wheat barges once kept Rome running with free bread? Or that whole wars were fought over tea? Get ready to follow corn's weird journey from the floating fields of the Aztec emperors to the glossy shine on this book's cover.

Andy Warner sifts through the roots and leaves of our long, complicated history with the earth's original green resources in this hilarious, fact-filled follow-up to Andy Warner's Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets.