Coffee: A Dark History

March 28, 2018 - Comment

“Masterful and exhaustive . . . eye-opening lessons in economics, ethics, culture and science, resulting in a comprehensive overview of a commodity that is second only to oil in its importance to world trade.” ―Worcester Evening News Coffee trader and historian Antony Wild delivers a rollicking history of the most valuable legally traded commodity in

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“Masterful and exhaustive . . . eye-opening lessons in economics, ethics, culture and science, resulting in a comprehensive overview of a commodity that is second only to oil in its importance to world trade.” ―Worcester Evening News

Coffee trader and historian Antony Wild delivers a rollicking history of the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world after oil―an industry that employs 100 million people throughout the world. From obscure beginnings in east Africa in the fifteenth century as a stimulant in religious devotion, coffee became an imperial commodity, produced by poor tropical countries and consumed by rich temperate ones. Through the centuries, the influence of coffee on the rise of capitalism and its institutions has been enormous. Revolutions were once hatched in coffeehouses, commercial alliances were forged, secret societies were formed, and politics and art were endlessly debated. Today, while coffee chains spread like wildfire, coffee-producing countries are in crisis: with prices at a historic low, they are plagued by unprecedented unemployment, abandoned farms, enforced migration, and massive social disruption. Bridging the gap between coffee’s dismal colonial past and its perilous corporate present, Coffee reveals the shocking exploitation that has always lurked at the heart of the industry.

Product Features

  • ISBN13: 9780393337396
  • Condition: New
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Comments

carlos says:

Stay off political ideology This book is very interesting in its historical and technical data. It is entertaining, BUT when Mr. Wild starts with his political ideological rants and begins brainwashing, I had to stop reading and erase Mr. wild from any future reading………..too much editorializing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joseph L. Kolb says:

you need a couple cups to read through this antony is a coffee trader and historian who wrote this book on the history of coffee. the origins are a bit murky, but seemed it was used in Ethiopia around the 1400s and spread into Europe in the 17th century. coffee houses and coffee continued to grow in momentum using the slave trade to reap in large profits. coffee has 800 chemical ingredients, so outside from being a heavily studied bean, it’s also very delicate and most of what we drink is stale due to oxidation. according to mr wild,…

Jennifer A. Wickes says:

Good book, more like a text book. Library JournalWild (The East India Company) has been widely recognized for introducing specialty coffees to Great Britain. Here, he presents a 500-year history of the much-loved drink, drawing on science, politics, anthropology, and alchemy before concluding that today’s large companies, with their demand for lower prices, have put coffee farmers out of business and thousands of workers out of jobs in Africa and Central America. Wild’s explanation of how major corporations have…

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