When the first coffee-house opened in London in 1652, customers were bewildered by this strange new drink from Turkey - hot, bitter and black as soot. But those who tried coffee were soon won over. More coffee-houses were opened across London and, in the following decades, in America and Europe. For a hundred years the coffee-house occupied the centre of urban life, creating a distinctive social culture by treating all customers as equals. Gossip, dissent and sedition were exchanged and debated around their egalitarian tables. Merchants held auctions of goods, writers and poets conducted discussions, scientists demonstrated experiments and gave lectures, philantropists deliberated reforms. Coffee-houses thus played a key role in the explosion of political, financial, scientific and literary change in the 18th century. The stock market, insurance companies, political parties and the scientific symposium had their birth in the coffee-house. In the 19th century the coffee-house declined, but the 1950s witnessed a dramatic revival in the popularity of coffee with the appearance of espresso machines and the coffee bar', and the 1990s saw the arrival of retail chains like Starbucks.
The Coffee-House
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Review
'THE COFFEE-HOUSE is everything it should be - careful, intelligent and embodying the spirit of its subject by being written for the digestion of the general public. It contains the perfect recipe of scholarship, stimulant and froth.' (THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
'This is a convincing and meticulous read, building an intriguing and engrossing picture of coffee's role in British society. And what a relief that this isn't yet another wide-ranging cherry-picking history of a commodity, but rather a close examination of how particular rooms shaped the British identity. There are plenty of incidental surprises, but the total picture is the revelation: something happened when coffee met the English Enlightenment and the result was an explosion of creativity..' (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
'...readable and scholarly account of an important and curiously neglected phenomenon. Rich in evocative detail... and strong on social, political and economic context, The Coffee House is a book for the coffee-lover and historian alike.' (THE SPECTATOR )
'Ellis's sober, rigorous narrative lucidly dovetails the political with the cultural, and is particularly engaging as it charts the convulsions of England through its early modernisation... Ellis unpicks the ideologies that have contributed so importantly to our entrenched beliefs in freedom of speech and in our political constitution.' (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )
'brilliant' (Bee Wilson THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE )
'... [Ellis] circles his subject, elegantly and thoughtfully investigating the cultures - political, literary and financial - that the rituals of the coffee house have helped to shape... cooly scrutinizing the romance of the bean, this book invites us to ask ourselves who we think we are when we order a cappuccino "with wings".' (Norma Clarke TLS )
'This is a convincing and meticulous read, building an intriguing and engrossing picture of coffee's role in British society. And what a relief that this isn't yet another wide-ranging cherry-picking history of a commodity, but rather a close examination of how particular rooms shaped the British identity. There are plenty of incidental surprises, but the total picture is the revelation: something happened when coffee met the English Enlightenment and the result was an explosion of creativity..' (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
'...readable and scholarly account of an important and curiously neglected phenomenon. Rich in evocative detail... and strong on social, political and economic context, The Coffee House is a book for the coffee-lover and historian alike.' (THE SPECTATOR )
'Ellis's sober, rigorous narrative lucidly dovetails the political with the cultural, and is particularly engaging as it charts the convulsions of England through its early modernisation... Ellis unpicks the ideologies that have contributed so importantly to our entrenched beliefs in freedom of speech and in our political constitution.' (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )
'brilliant' (Bee Wilson THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE )
'... [Ellis] circles his subject, elegantly and thoughtfully investigating the cultures - political, literary and financial - that the rituals of the coffee house have helped to shape... cooly scrutinizing the romance of the bean, this book invites us to ask ourselves who we think we are when we order a cappuccino "with wings".' (Norma Clarke TLS )
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'THE COFFEE-HOUSE is everything it should be - careful, intelligent and embodying the spirit of its subject by being written for the digestion of the general public. It contains the perfect recipe of scholarship, stimulant and froth.'
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First Sentence
Anchoring below the customs house steps at Constantinople on the evening of 28 September 1610, the Armado, out of Simo, a Greek sponge divers' bark not much larger than a Gravesend wherry, must have made a singularly unimposing impression on the officers of the Sublime Porte. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Anchoring below the customs house steps at Constantinople on the evening of 28 September 1610, the Armado, out of Simo, a Greek sponge divers' bark not much larger than a Gravesend wherry, must have made a singularly unimposing impression on the officers of the Sublime Porte. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The title of this book does not do it justice - there is hardly an aspect of the history of coffee, let alone where it is drunk, that is not covered in this fascinating book. What's more, the author's lively style carries the reader along through all the twists and turns of the story. Who would have thought that the apparently harmless coffee-house would come to be viewed with such deep suspicion by the authorities? And the story goes right up to the present day,with the rise of the coffee-house chain. Watch out for the wicked picture of Starbuck's. Settle down with a good cup of coffee and enjoy a good read.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By R Hamblyn
Format:Hardcover
This is a remarkable and persuasive account of the rise of a specific form of public sociality in 17th-century England: the coffee house, a seemingly unlikely blend of middle eastern and Protestant values, thrown into fruitful alliance by the presence of a stimulating beverage - 'the wine of Islam', as Markman Ellis characterises it - a drink that served to introduce the discipline of sober public discourse into a hitherto booze-sodden British life.
Coffee, the world's second-most traded commodity (after oil), provided the catalyst for a novel kind of mercantile wide-awake club which led, eventually, to marine insurance (through Lloyd's Coffee House) as well as to Starbucks and Coffee Rebublic, complete with their array of newspapers and magazines in imitation of their historical forebears. Ellis does a good job introducing the characters behind the rise of the coffee habit, as well as elucidating the various contested meanings of the drink itself, but he is particularly good at recreating the locations in which coffee was first consumed, and what the act of consumption meant to its earliest customers.
After reading this, your frothy latte will never taste quite the same again.
Coffee, the world's second-most traded commodity (after oil), provided the catalyst for a novel kind of mercantile wide-awake club which led, eventually, to marine insurance (through Lloyd's Coffee House) as well as to Starbucks and Coffee Rebublic, complete with their array of newspapers and magazines in imitation of their historical forebears. Ellis does a good job introducing the characters behind the rise of the coffee habit, as well as elucidating the various contested meanings of the drink itself, but he is particularly good at recreating the locations in which coffee was first consumed, and what the act of consumption meant to its earliest customers.
After reading this, your frothy latte will never taste quite the same again.
By Bagration
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This a very interesting and therefore informative book about the coffee house and its origins. Fascinating book about the coffee house's place in 17th century England and beyond
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The art of coffee-drinking.
I purchased this book because of late I have found developments of the seventeenth century, particularly of a scientific aspect, decidedly interesting. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. K. E. Mrs Reynolds
2.0 out of 5 stars
Historical analysis of coffee drinkers in the 1600s
Our bookgroup chose this book on the basis of reviews pronouncing it entertaining, lively and engaging. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Stumptown
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