Coffeeland. One Man's Dark Empire And The Making Of Your Favorite Drug

In the 20th century, one English merchant, James Gill, was able to build a whole coffee empire in the Republic of El Salvador with cunning and cruelty. How did he do it? This fantastic and little-known story is told by the author of this book, a researcher of the history of food, work and capitalism, and a participant of the Harvard scientific "Project on the Study of Justice, Welfare and the Economy", Augustin Sedgewick. It shows how we drink coffee every day and don't even think about the conditions under which it was harvested and ground. Inhuman conditions prevailed on James Gill's plantations - coffee became almost a symbol of capitalism, so the people who were under the control of the plantation owner had to work even harder and harder.

This story will actually explain macro-economic, social and political processes to the readers using a very familiar and vivid example - the process of growing coffee beans.