Chewing Gum

About this book

"Not long after the American Civil War, former Mexican president and Alamo victor General Santa Anna introduced chicle - a rare ingredient from the Mexican tropics - to an eccentric Staten Island inventor, Thomas Adams. Both were down on their luck, and little did they know that their chance meeting would lead to the creation of an icon of the modern age. Chicle-based chewing gum soon became a powerful symbol of American pop culture and attitude, and proved to be a massive commercial success in the new age of mass consumption. And given its functional uselessness, chewing gum is as good an indicator as any of the triumph of consumption for consumption's sake." "But there is another side to this story. For not only was gum a classic mass culture product, its extraction helped fuel a long indigenous revolution in the Yucatan jungle. And ironically, gum manufacturers, such as Chicago's famous Wrigley family, partially funded the Mayan Indians who collected the chicle as they fought for autonomy from the Mexican government." "Chewing Gum chronicles the transformation of gum into an emblem of American mass culture alongside a vivid history of peasant revolution led by charismatic Indians in the dense forests of Southern Mexico. This story is a cultural history of modern America and a cautionary tale about how the resources that fuel modern pleasure often come from scenes of violence, chaos, and oppression."--BOOK JACKET.