xi, 323 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : 23 cm

"From obscure beginnings in East Africa in the fifteenth century and its early days as an aid to religious devotion, coffee became an imperial commodity, produced by poor tropical counties - mainly colonies of European powers - and consumed by rich temperate ones. At the same time, the influence of coffee itself on the rise of capitalism and its institutions has been enormous. Revolutions have been hatched in coffee houses, commercial alliances forged, secret societies formed, and politics and art endlessly debated. Tony Wild, coffee trader and historian, uncovers the intricate web of connections which coffee has woven in its five-hundred year history, linking alchemy and anthropology, poetry and politics, and science and slavery." "Coffee is still arguably the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world after oil, but now the counties producing it are in crisis because world coffee prices are at a historic low. Unprecedented unemployment, abandoned farms, enforced migration and massive social disruption are the result. Coffee: A Dark History bridges the gap between coffee's dismal colonial past and its perilous corporate present, and reveals the shocking exploitation that has always lurked at the heart of the industry."--BOOK JACKET

Includes bibliographical references and index

The way we live now -- Origins -- Enter the dragon -- The mocha trade -- Coffee and societies -- The fall of mocha -- Slavery and the coffee colonies -- The continental system and Napoleon's alternative to coffee -- Napoleon and St. Helena -- Slavery, Brazil, and coffee -- The great exhibition -- Harar and Rimbaud : the cradle and the crucible -- Modern times -- Coffee, science and history -- The battle of the hemispheres -- Fair trade -- Espresso : the esperanto of coffee -- The heart of darkness

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