>Has anyone read Mark Pendergrast's UNCOMMON GROUNDS? What do you
>think? How does it compare to the other books about coffee that have
>come out recently?
>
>(Personally, I have to admit that coffee is not my cup of tea.)
>
>Peter
It's good, but it tends to mix colorful anecdotes that you can find in the
National Geographic with more useful economic information. The very best
thing I've seen is Marco Palacios' "Coffee in Colombia, 1850-1970: an
economic, social, and political history" which may be a bit specialized for
your class and hard to come by. Another excellent book is Robert G.
Williams' "States and social evolution: coffee and the rise of national
governments in Central America." Williams is also the author of a book on
export agriculture and the Central American revolutions of the 1980s, which
is indispensable for understanding why Somoza was overthrown despite
"favorable" GDP statistics.
Louis Proyect
(The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
