Chocolate

Chocolate traces representations of chocolate in Spanish literature and historical documents, providing a fascinating and worldly narrative about one of the most beloved foods of all time.

Erin Alice Cowling is an assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of Humanities at MacEwan University.

"Is it possible to capture delight and devastation, conquest and commerce, culture and cuisine, all in the history of one commodity? It is if the product in question is chocolate, and if your author is Erin Alice Cowling. This book is a must-read for scholars of early modern literature, colonialism, and the trans-Atlantic world; but also for anyone who loves chocolate – which is to say, everyone."

Carolyn Nadeau, Byron S. Tucci Professor of Spanish, Illinois Wesleyan University:

"From conquest chronicles and missionary accounts to the raging religious and medical debates of chocolate’s value, to its many and varied appearances in early modern plays and other primary sources, Cowling’s fascinating study provides ample evidence of chocolate as status symbol and the fervour that surrounded it throughout the early modern era."

David Castillo, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, University at Buffalo:

"Chocolate is an intellectual treat: an adventurous journey through uncharted crossroads of political, economic, literary, and culinary histories, spanning four centuries of transatlantic exchanges, from pre-Colombian times and the early age of exploration, conquest, and colonization of the new world to the twilight of the Spanish empire."