Was it the Boston Tea Party? Why Americans Drink Coffee

In this talk, Professor Topik considers the political economy and culture of coffee consumption in the Americas. He argues that it wasn’t the Boston Tea Party that turned coffee into the Liberty Drink. Rather, economic and political factors in North and South America shaped this consumer culture.
Steven Topik is Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he concentrates on world history, with an emphasis on Latin American and especially Brazilian history. His latest works focus on commodities as a means of studying world history and include The Second Conquest of Latin America (1997, with Allen Wells); The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia and Latin America: 1500-1989 (2003, with William Clarence Smith); and From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000 (2006, with Carlos Marichal and Zephyr Frank). He is currently working on a world history of coffee from 1500 to today.

Sponsored by the IHC Food Studies Research Focus Group.

jwil 22.ii.2010