Coffee: A Dark History

Linking alchemy, anthropology, politics, and science, Antony Wild uncovers the intrigue that coffee has woven into its 500-year history.

Coffee trader and historian Antony Wild delivers a rollicking history of the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world after oil — and an industry that employs one hundred 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 forged, secret societies formed, and politics and art 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.

"While coffee historian Wild brings enthusiasm to this tome on the 500-year history of the caffeinated bean, it doesn't match the simple passion with which coffee lovers enjoy their morning java. (In fairness to the author, how could it?) Wild (The East India Company) traces the bean as it makes its way from Africa to the Middle East (it was once known as the 'wine of Araby') to the West, and the rise in cafe culture across Europe and eventually the New World, where, thanks to the Boston Tea Party, coffee surpassed tea as the patriotic drink of choice for a fledging nation. But Wild repeatedly reminds readers that for all the pleasure a cup of coffee brings to its drinker, the history of this beguiling brew is indeed dark. As long as there has been coffee, Wild asserts, there have been colonial powers — and now corporations — to exploit the workers that grow it. While this is a fascinating story that combines history with anthropology, too often the writing is buried under the heartless statistics of economic formulations. However, the work does provide caffeine junkies with intriguing reading material next time they find themselves waiting in line to order their grande vanilla latte. Illus. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Tracing coffee's history and spread from sixteenth-century East Africa and Arabia, Wild perceptively connects it with Napoleon's career and with the poet Rimbaud." Booklist

"Wild's explanation of how major corporations have taken over the coffee industry...will inspire readers to comtemplate their contribution to this global situation." Library Journal

"Himself a coffee lover and an expert on the subject...Wild is nonetheless no sentimentalist when it comes to the human and natural toll the bean has extracted." Washington Post

A European coffee trader traces the history of a leading global trade commodity. His bitter perspective encompasses coffee's role in the slave trade, revolutions, Napoleon's exile, the Starbucks phenomenon, and current global economics including the fair trade movement. An illustration shows coffee disrupting spiders' web- weaving more than marijuana. Given his occupation, it's surprising that Wild ignores research on coffee's positive health effects.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

A European coffee trader traces the history of a leading global trade commodity. His bitter perspective encompasses coffee's role in the slave trade, revolutions, Napoleon's exile, the Starbucks phenomenon, and current global economics including the fair trade movement. An illustration shows coffee disrupting spiders' web- weaving more than marijuana. Given his occupation, it's surprising that Wild ignores research on coffee's positive health effects. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Wild, a coffee trader and historian delivers a rollicking history of the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world after oil, and an industry that employs 100 million people throughout the world.

Wild is a director of the East India Company and an undisputed authority on its history. In addition, he is a member of the Musicians Union; the Performing Rights Society; the Guild of Food Writers; the British Actors' Equity Association; the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph, and Theatre Union; and an honorary member of the Chocolate Society.