Mark Pendergrast on the History of Coffee

To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Listen nowDownload file
Embed player

Journalist Mark Pendergrast is the author of “Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World.”  He tells Steve Paulson that coffee came from Ethiopia, functioned as a patriotic symbol during the early days of the American Republic, and prolonged the slave trade in places like Brazil. And, he says, Americans have always believed they have a right to cheap coffee.