This revised impression enables another generation of readers to sample what Eric Hobsbawm has referred to as 'that magnificent monument of scholarship and humanity'.

Introduction to the revised impression; Preface; Illustrations; 1. Immigrant man and the Andean potato; 2. The archaeological record; 3. The potato in pre-Spanish Peru; 4. The Inca period; 5. The potatoes of America and their relation to the early European varieties; 6. Early descriptions of the potato in Europe; 7. 'Vertues', vices and values; 8. Names and aliases; 9. The introduction to Europe: the Raleigh and other legends; 10. Potato varieties: past, present and future; 11. The potato in Ireland in the sixteenth century; 12. The potato in Ireland in the seventeenth century; 13. The potato in Ireland in the eighteenth century; 14. The period of Irish self-government; 15. Ireland in the nineteenth century; 16. The potato famine: its causes and consequences; 17. The potato in post-famine Ireland; 18. The potato's part in the tragedy of Ireland; 19. The potato in Scotland; 20. The potato in the highlands of Scotland; 21 The potato in the lowlands of Scotland; 22. The potato in Wales; 23. The potato of Shakespeare and the Jacobeans; 24. The seventeenth century: the first hundred years of the potato's progress in Great Britain; 25. The eighteenth century; 26. The nineteenth century and after; 27. The relation between potato and bread consumption; 28. The potato in Tristan de Cunha; 29. The potato in St Helena; 30. The potato in Jersey; 31. The industrial uses of the potato; 32. The potato in war-time; 33. The implements of production; 34. The potato in the realm of art; Epilogue; Appendix; Bibliography; Index; Note.

'It is a work of profound and accurate scholarship, the product, over long years, of patient and careful research. Side by side with the history of the potato, its adoption by man and its spread throughout the world, is a study of the influence which it has exerted on the social structure of those people who accepted it as a staple article of diet.' Nature 'It is a great work, in many respects a noble work, that will excite attention and arouse interest in many quarters.' The Spectator 'His profound learning and the felicity of phrase with which he is able to express it from a combination which carries the reader avidly from page to page ... Dr Salaman has written a truly monumental work.' Horticultural Abstracts 'This book stands as the high achievement of an erudite and humane person of wide knowledge and even wider understanding.' Heredity