Caffeine and Revolution: How Coffee Changed the World

Description du cours

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a cup of coffee? Or why we love to go to coffee shops? In this class you will learn the answers to these and other questions by exploring the global history of coffee. It is a plant now cultivated around the world but originating in Ethiopia. It is a caffeine-source fueling intellectual and political debates among Enlightenment thinkers in the cafés of Paris or the coffeehouses frequented by Ottoman revolutionaries. And it is the excuse for people since the fifteenth century to linger at a table and socialize. Discover how coffee spread around the world and became an important part of global trade leading Europe to find new colonies to allow its cultivation. Explore the science of coffee — how it affects the body and what is necessary for its cultivation. And visualize how coffee shops have transformed the way people meet, speak, and organize.

Over five days we will use historic maps to trace how coffee got to Europe from far off regions, and we will try different types of coffee from around the world and observe both its varied smells and tastes but also its effects on our body. We’ll visit a coffee shop and look at architectural drawings of 18th century Parisian cafés – to understand why people drink coffee in coffee shops, and why, historically, these spaces have become the site of revolutionary intellectual and political activity. Will learning about the history of coffee turn you into a revolutionary?"