Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast

Key features: A superb book with rich blend of anecdote, character study, market analysis and social history Focused on the history of legally and socially accepted drug-coffee Thorough description that unearths trade wars, health reports and café cultures

Mark Pendergrast the author of this book writes about the history and origin of coffee. According to the author this beverage over the years tormented revolution, provoked deforestation, made few prosperous and perished many and addicted millions with its psychoactive caffeine. Mark writes, coffee is the world’s most valuable legal commodity after oil and has the ability to make the worst day a tolerable one, make you think and rekindle romance. Still coffee’s history is rife with controversy and politics.

It relates coffee to the various historical events right from the genocide regime in Uganda to French and American revolutions. Further it tells us how the alcohol was replaced by coffee in Britain in Late 1600s, the rise and fall of regional coffee brands and several other remarkable events that have found its place in this book.