The devil's cup
coffee, the driving force in history
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Publication
1999 - Soho, New York, NY, New York (State)
Language
English
Word Count
57,750 words, Guess
Page Count
231 pages
Identifiers
- Internet Archivedevilscupcoffeed0000alle
- Internet Archivedevilscupcoffeed0000alle_e3o6
- ISBN-101569471746
- ISBN-139781569471746
- LibraryThing135642
Classifications
- DDC641.3/373
- LCCTX415 .A45 1999
- LCCTX415.A45 1999
Description
A self-appointed social anthropologist of coffee, Stewart Lee Allen has written the definitive account of caffeine's impact on humankind. Beginning in Ethiopia where he sails a dhow along the same route that carried the first beans to Yemen 1500 years ago, Allen literally travels the world on his mission to prove his theory that coffee is the driving force in history. Refreshingly lateral, superbly researched and in itself an extraordinary journey, The Devil's Cup does for lassitude what Dava Sobel did for longitude. - Jacket.
Description
"Stewart Lee Allen is a self-appointed social anthropologist of coffee who has consumed 2,920 liters of percolated, drip, espresso, latte, cappuccino, macchiato, con panna, instant and americana, all in the pursuit of the truth about coffee. Is it, as someone posits, the substance that drives history? An over stimulated traveler, Allen gives himself the task of testing this thesis and sets out across the globe to pursue his evidence.". "Disdaining forbidden borders and dangerous domains, he researches cults in Ethiopia that used coffee as a kind of sacrament, sails a dhow along the same lanes that carried the first beans to Yemen 1500 years ago, and treks to India where seedlings were smuggled. He walks the slave trails in Zaire along which coffee trees have grown from beans discarded by captives, and explores the ruins of a slave-operated coffee plantation in Brazil. He takes coffee with devotees in Istanbul, in the back alleys of Jiga Jiga and in the posh salons of Vienna and Paris, and London where coffeehouses evolved into stock exchanges, insurance brokerages and tabloid magazines."--BOOK JACKET.
Other Editions
- The devil's cup: coffee, the driving force in history
Show 2 more editions
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