Christine M. Du Bois offering her new non-fiction book, “The Story of Soy,” written for a college-educated popular audience. A reviewer in Botany One recently effused:
“Having read ‘The Story of Soy,’ I’m left in absolutely no doubt that this small seed is huge. And I mean absolutely ginormous! Du Bois’ book is nothing short of a revelation and thoroughly recommended to anybody who wants to gain an insight into how the modern world works . . . Not only will ‘The Story of Soy’ enlighten you about many topics, it’s all done – and importantly – in a carefully balanced way: Du Bois doesn’t pick sides; she simply delivers intelligent, evidence-based writing. Additionally, ‘The Story of Soy’ is extremely well-written, with some really nice stylistic flourishes . . . a quite gripping read . . . a great story, told by a great story-teller.”
Traveling across the globe and through millennia, “The Story of Soy” includes a cast of fascinating characters—entities who’ve applauded, experimented with, or despised soy. From Neolithic villagers to Buddhist missionaries, European colonialists, Japanese soldiers, and Nazi strategists; from George Washington Carver to Henry Ford, Monsanto, and Greenpeace; from landless peasants to petroleum refiners, Du Bois explores soy subjects as diverse as its impact on international conflicts, its role in large-scale meat production and disaster relief, its troubling ecological impacts, and the nutritional controversies swirling around soy today. She also describes its genetic modification, the scandals and pirates involved in the international trade in soybeans, and the potential of soy as an intriguing renewable fuel.
Du Bois earned a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University in 2000. With Sidney Mintz, she is a former manager of the Johns Hopkins Project on Soy. She is a co-author and editor of “The World of Soy” (2008), as well as the author of “Images of West Indian Immigrants in Mass Media: The Struggle for a Positive Ethnic Reputation” (2004). She lives in Pennsylvania.