Augustine Sedgewick Knihy

Coffee is essential for billions globally, serving as a major commodity and the leading source of the world's most popular drug. Augustine Sedgewick's narrative explores coffee's five-hundred-year evolution from a mysterious Muslim ritual to an everyday necessity, a story largely unknown to coffee drinkers. The focus is on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in Manchester's slums, established a significant coffee dynasty in the early twentieth century. By integrating Industrial Revolution innovations into plantation agriculture, Hill transformed El Salvador into a model of intensive monoculture, characterized by remarkable productivity, inequality, and violence. Sedgewick traces coffee's journey from Hill's plantations to American supermarkets, kitchens, and cafes, highlighting how it generated immense wealth alongside severe poverty, connecting and dividing the modern world. Both El Salvador and the United States have been dubbed "Coffeeland" for different reasons, with lasting implications. This compelling history of coffee offers fresh insights into globalization, prompting a reevaluation of our connections to distant people and places through everyday items that shape our lives.

Coffee is an essential part of daily life for billions and a significant commodity in the global economy, serving as the leading source of the world's most popular drug. Augustine Sedgewick's narrative uncovers the hidden history of coffee's evolution from a mysterious Ottoman custom to a daily necessity. Central to this story is the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, established a major coffee dynasty in the late nineteenth century. By integrating industrial revolution innovations into plantation agriculture, Hill transformed El Salvador into an intensive monoculture characterized by remarkable productivity, inequality, and violence. The book traces coffee's journey from Hill's plantations through international markets and into the United States, highlighting the processes in San Francisco's roasting plants and the packaging of major coffee brands. Sedgewick illustrates how global capitalism both connected and divided people—those who worked with coffee versus those who consumed it—creating a divide between the rich and poor. He also explores how the growth of coffee production and trade paralleled the rise of the scientific concept of energy as a universal force, reshaping perceptions of human labor and its interconnectedness, ultimately influencing both tropical landscapes and the widespread consumption of coffee today.

The book offers a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of fatherhood from the Bronze Age to contemporary times. It delves into the origins of our concepts of fatherhood, examining how societal changes have reshaped the role of fathers throughout history. By analyzing different eras and cultural contexts, it seeks to understand the current significance of being a dad, highlighting the complexities and transformations in paternal roles over the centuries.