Rate this book

Uncommon Grounds: The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World (1999)

by Mark Pendergrast(Favorite Author)

3.6 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

046501836X (ISBN13: 9780465018369)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Basic Books

review 1: Not exactly what I expected, it was a very interesting history of coffee use, coffee companies and distributors/roasters in North America. Coffee certainly has had a strong affect on the politics and economies of Latin America and parts of Africa over the past several hundred years. It talked about the impact of market forces on the lives and politics of the coffee growing countries. I hoped it would spend more time on the cultural changes in the growing countries.
review 2: I'm not a busy person so I read the entire book, but if I were recommending it to a busy friend I'd tell them to read the first few chapters that cover coffee's discovery and world expansion (which I found very interesting), then skip a large bulk of the middle which painstakingly (painf... moreul for the reader) details internal coffee wars between businessmen and global stockprices. Then I'd tell them t skip to the end and read US coffee history, maybe starting around WWII and into the small-roaster quality renaissance in which we currently find ourselves. The middle part was so boring, I found it almost ironic that a book about the world's favorite stimulant was literally putting me to sleep. less

Download links for: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

Advertising