Coffeeland : a history
Sedgewick, Augustine2020
Book
Once drunk only as part of an obscure Islamic custom, coffee is now an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. It is one of the most valuable commodities in the history of the global economy and the world's most popular drug. The very word 'coffee' is one of the most widespread on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's new history tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 400-year transformation into an everyday necessity. It centres on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, founded one of the world's great coffee dynasties. Adapting the innovations of the industrial revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped to turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history, a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. The book follows coffee from the Hill family plantations into the United States, through the San Francisco roasting plants into supermarkets, kitchens, and work places, and finally into today's omnipresent cafes. Sedgewick reveals the unexpected consequences of the rise of coffee, which reshaped large areas of the tropics, transformed understandings of energy, and ultimately made us dependent on a drug served in a cup.
Main title:
Coffeeland : a history / Augustine Sedgewick.
Author:
Sedgewick, Augustine, author
Work:
Imprint:
London : Allen Lane, 2020.©2020
Collation:
433 pages ; 25 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780241426227 (hbk)9780241426227 (hardback)
Dewey class:
338.17373338.47663930973338.1737
Language:
English
BRN:
650392
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Melbourne Library | -Business and IT | BUSIN 338.1737 SEDG | Available |
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | -Business and IT | BUSIN 338.1737 SEDG | On loan - Due: 14 Jul 2026 |
| Library at the Dock | -Business and IT | BUSIN 338.1737 SEDG | On loan - Due: 04 Jul 2026 |