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Coffee: A Dark History (Hardcover)

by Tony Wild (Author) "The catastrophically low price currently paid to the producers of coffee is leading to the largest enforced global lay-off of workers in history ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd (15 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841156493
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841156491
  • Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 16 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,054,323 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Time Out

'Wild manages an impressive mix of historical overview and contemporary analysis.'


Product Description

The extraordinary tale of the wildfire spread of the consumption of a drink which is embedded in our history and our daily cultural life. The coffee industry worldwide employs more people -- thirty million -- than any other. It is the lifeblood of many third world countries, either earning them invaluable foreign currency or enslaving them to the monster that is modern global capitalism, depending on how you look at it. From obscure beginnings in East Africa a millennia ago and its early days as an aid to religious devotion, coffee became an integral part of the rise of European mercantilism from the seventeenth-century onwards. As well as being a valued trading commodity, it was the preferred beverage of the merchants who did the trading. The rise of the coffee house and the City of London were inextricably, perhaps even mysteriously linked. In Coffee Tales, Tony Wild delves into the chemistry of coffee and its mysterious properties. He travels to Yemen, the source of the history of coffee, where European traders made their way across the Tihama desert to sample the delights of this exotic drink. He explores references to coffee in ancient texts of the Bible, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Always the natural recourse of the subversive and revolutionary, Sulemein the Magnificent banned coffee in Constantinople -- offenders were sewn up in sacks and thrown into the Bosphorus. coffee as allegory for global greed and mercantile ruthlessness. To many people, coffee has become largely just another commodity. Coffee Tales will restore our faith in the mystery of this unique beverage, embedded deep in our history and our daily cultural life.
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The catastrophically low price currently paid to the producers of coffee is leading to the largest enforced global lay-off of workers in history. Read the first page
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A spider shouldn't drink it, 9 Jan 2007
By Arthur Crown (Heathrow, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Black Gold: The Dark History of Coffee (Paperback)
Antony Wild's (2004) book is The Good Tea and Coffee Company book of the month for January 2007.

At the outset, it claims to be a 'dark' history and it certainly doesn't disappoint in that respect.

Though sounding a little extravagant in portraying coffee as the 'forbidden fruit' in the Garden of Eden of the Old Testament, each chapter touches on sensitive ethical issues which are moving ever higher on the priority list of European consumers.

Tracing the origins of the cultivation of coffee back to the Yemen and the early attempts to create plantations elsewhere by The East India Company, we are taken on a journey of unexpected complexity as coffee finds its way into the social and religeous infrastracture of every continent it touches.

By the end of the book, we've had a lot more for our money than simply history. Antony Wild makes us look anew at something we have grown up with and almost taken for granted. He gives us the tools we need to think again about coffee - to bring it out of the darkness.. and into the light.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Personal view on coffee, 7 Nov 2009
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Black Gold: The Dark History of Coffee (Paperback)
Though the author does use various sources to support some of his claims with facts, it felt to me like a large part of the book was influenced by the authors personal opinion rather than facts.

What annoyed me a bit about the book is that some chapters take so unnessecary long. Sometimes a 15-page chapter could have been written in 1 or 2 pages, if the author would have stopped expressing his personal hypotheses. It really made it look like he had to write more words in order to fill the book - rather than having plenty of material about the history of coffee and coffee trade.

All in all, the material is interesting, but this book could have been written in less than half the pages. I'm not sure if I'd recommend the book, but it is wort having a look at.
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