Sugar Changed the World

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the book.

Pre-Reading “Icebreaker”

One of the main ideas in Sugar Changed the World is that History is Personal. What might this mean? You are sitting in a classroom right now, for instance, learning a particular subject in a particular way. Historical events shaped our education system, so those historical events are impacting you at this very moment. In what other ways does history affect your life? How did history impact your ancestors and the possibility of your birth? How did history shape the family circumstances into which you were born? How did history shape your cultural practices—the holidays you celebrate, the foods you eat, the clothes you wear, the music you listen to, and so on? How does history impact your identity and beliefs?

Teaching Suggestion: The purpose of this activity is to help students invest in the idea that History is Personal, so reading about historical events can be personally rewarding. Push students to consider that history is not a monolith: Historical events impacted different groups in varying ways, which means that individuals alive today have differing inheritances from the past. Point out that this will be true in the book they are about to read—that even though it is mostly about events from the distant past, it is also about how those events have shaped the individual worlds of people alive today.