Coffee Lover's Library: Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast

About the author, Mark Pendergrast: from the cover, "Investigative journalist and scholar, Mark Pendergrast lives in Vermont. His other books include For God, Country and Coca-Cola, a new and revised paperback edition of which is available from Basic Books and Victims of Memory.

Summary: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World is essentially a history book of several centuries told through the lens of coffee. If coffee had a memoir, this would be it. Told with an interesting mix of personality and objectivity, Pendergrast tells the story of coffees trek from Ethiopia to Arabia and then on to the rest of the world. Much is said about the coffee industry, from great historical disputes in coffee trade to the marketing tactics used by America's first corporate coffee giants. Coffee has had a lot of quirky and perky things to say over the past few centuries and Pendergrast has recorded them like a faithful scribe. Virtually any question as to why the coffee market has come to be the way it is is answered here. It is well worth the read.

Copyright: 1999 by Basic Books
Pages: 458
Cover Price: $18 in the U.S., $27.50 in Canada

Chapter-by-Chapter: Part One: Seeds of Conquest
Coffee Colonizes the World: A brief summary of coffee's trek from its Ethiopian origins to its place in society today.
The Coffee Kingdoms: A discussion of the historically exploitative cultivation of coffee in brazil, guatemala, and other Latin American countries.
The American Drink: A brief history of coffee in America with discussions on brands such as Chase and Sanborn and Folgers.
The Great Coffee Wars of the Gilded Age: A discussion of the historical roots embedded in the volatility of coffee prices in coffee trade.
Hermann Sielcken and Brazilian Valorization: A discussion of the global coffee market at the turn of the twentieth century with an emphasis on crisis in prices.
The Drug Drink: A review of the attack campaign against caffeine in coffee lead by figures such as CW post throughout the first part of the twentieth century.
Part Two: Canning the Buzz
Growing Pains: A discussion on the emerging coffee brands of the 1900s such as Hills Brothers and Maxwell House.
Making the World Safe for Coffee: A discussion of coffee during World War I, including the development of instant coffee and Colombian coffee.
Selling an Image in the Jazz Age: A review of coffee during the time of prohibition and the transfer of coffee from independent owners into the hands of multi-national corporations.
Burning Beans, Starving Campesinos: A discussion of the twentieth century plight of third world coffee farmers when prices were down and the market was flooded with excess coffee.
Showboating the Depression: A discussion of coffee in the age of advertising.
Cuppa Joe: Notes on the coffee market during World War II.
Part Three: Bitter Brews
Coffee Witch Hunts and Instant Nongratification: A review of the mid-1900s low quality, diluted, and cheap coffee flooding the market.
Robusta Triumphant: A review of coffee during the cold war and industrial changes leading into the late twentieth century.
Part Four: Romancing the Bean
A Scattered Band of Fanatics: A discussion on the roots of the specialty coffee movement including the stories of figures such as Alfred Peet and George Howell.
The Black Frost: A discussion on late twenieth century coffee origin revolutions, coffee crop plague, and global market changes.
The Specialty Revolution: A review of coffee as a premium social beverage throughout the 1970s and 1980s with discussions on Fair Trade and coffeehouse emergence.
The Starbucks Experience: The story of Starbucks and its effect on the coffee market and society.
Final Grounds: A discussion on the present and future state of coffee.
Appendix
How to Brew the Perfect Cup
Notes on Sources
List of Interviews
Acknowledgements
Index
Illustration Credits