Not long after the Civil War, three-time Mexican president and Alamo victor General Santa Ana introduced chicle--a rare ingredient from Mexico that was the basis for what would become chewing gum--to a Staten Island inventor. Both were down on their luck, and little did they know that their chance meeting would help create an icon of the modern age. A functionally useless product that simply makes us happy, gum popped onto the American scene with a bang, quickly becoming an icon for baseball, movie stars, adolescent rebellion, and "attitude." A barometer of modernity, it was one of the first products to be advertised on billboards--a scheme hatched by the Wrigley brothers of Chicago. <BR>But there was another side to the story as well. For not only was gum a mass culture archetype, it helped fuel a long indigenous revolution in the jungles of the Yucatan. And ironically enough, it was gum manufacturers like Wrigley who ultimately funded the Mayan Indians who collected the chicle as they fought for autonomyfrom the Mexican government. <BR>In "Chewing Gum, Michael Redclift deftly chronicles the growing popularity of gum in the U.S. alongside a fascinating history of peasant revolution led by charismatic Indians in the jungles of southern Mexico. Until the 1950s, the production of gum relied on the chicle harvested by Mayans. For seventy-five years, demand had steadily grown across the world. After World War II, however, synthetic gum replaced chicle, putting many of the "chicleros" out of work and ending a colorful epoch. Today, due to the current rage for "natural" products, chicle has made a comeback in a new role as natural chewing gum. <BR>Vivid and absorbing, "Chewing Gum is atonce an American cultural history and an emblematic cautionary tale about the how the resources that fuel modern pleasures often come from scenes of violence, chaos, and oppression.

"A scholar in ecology and social theory, Redclift traveled the Yucatán to research this in-depth, richly detailed history. 'The story of chewing gum is very much a Mexican-American affair,' he notes, beginning with Mexico's 75-year-old General Santa Anna on Staten Island in 1869. Believing Yucatán chicle's rubber-like qualities could launch a rubber tire industry, the ambitious Santa Anna struck a deal with inventor Thomas Adams. Failing to concoct a rubber substitute from the springy sap, Adams instead succeeded with his licorice-flavored Black Jack gum. Consumers went wild, and other entrepreneurs leaped in, including, in 1893, William Wrigley. With free gum samples mailed to millions, Wrigley's innovative ad campaigns made him one of America's 10 wealthiest men. His factories produced 280 million sticks of gum weekly, which had far-reaching implications in the Yucatán jungles: 'The production and sale of chicle on the part of rebel Mayas Indians... was allowing them to buy arms to fight the Mexican government.' American gum manufacturers were dependent on supplies from land controlled by the Mayan rebels, and since 'the geopolitics of hemispheric relations lies at the heart of the story of chewing gum,' the book has 75 pages on military conflicts, impoverished forest workers, the chicle economy and international harvesting and production methods. With gum added to WWII service rations, 150 billion sticks were shipped overseas, but bubble gum synthetics brought the era of Mayan-harvested chicle to a close. While some readers may be interested in the book's concluding chapters (which cover abandoned chicle camps, tourism possibilities and renewed interest in chicle for natural organic products), the omission of Bazooka's contribution to the chewing gum world, as well as the book's overall dry tone, take away from this book's general appeal. B&w illus." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Redclift (geography, King's College London, UK) narrates the history of chewing gum, combining discussion of gum as a iconic emblem of the rise of American mass consumer culture with explorations of how its phenomenal marketplace success impacted the indigenous Mexicans who collected the chicle necessary for its manufacture. He brings the story full circle from the introduction of the first chicle-based gum, through the growth of bubble gum culture, to the reintroduction of chicle-based gum as an environmentally sensitive product helping Mexican forest workers live sustainable lifestyles.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Fortunes of Taste. An accessibly written history of a ubiquitous product.