
Coffeeland
One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $22.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jason Culp
About this listen
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
“Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.”—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world
Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world’s great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history—a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname “Coffeeland,” but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present.
Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.
©2020 Augustine Sedgewick (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Drink
- A Cultural History of Alcohol
- By: Iain Gately
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to present day. Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the War of Independence, Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, slave trade, and failed experiment of national Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world's most famous drinks - and drinkers. Packed with trivia and colorful characters, Drink amounts to an intoxicating history of the world.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Ben on 02-23-22
By: Iain Gately
-
A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
- Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
- By: Heather Heying, Bret Weinstein
- Narrated by: Heather Heying, Bret Weinstein
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet we are listless, divided, and miserable. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, but our political landscape is unmoored, and rates of suicide, loneliness, and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these truths? And how should we respond? For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our troubles is clear: The accelerating rate of change in the modern world has outstripped the capacity of our brains and bodies to adapt.
-
-
Presents conjecture and bias as science
- By Reviewer on 09-16-21
By: Heather Heying, and others
-
Humble Pi
- When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
- By: Matt Parker
- Narrated by: Matt Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
-
-
Fascinating & enlightening even for da mathphobic✏️
- By C. White on 01-23-20
By: Matt Parker
-
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
- By: Tom Phillips
- Narrated by: Nish Kumar
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern humans have come a long way in the 70,000 years they’ve walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we’re true winners. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we’ve managed to truly f--k things up.
-
-
if you think white men are evil
- By Victor Fiore on 12-11-20
By: Tom Phillips
-
The Crime Book
- Big Ideas Simply Explained
- By: DK, Peter James
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Jack the Ripper to the modern-day drug cartels, discover the most notorious crimes and criminals in history. With a foreword written and narrated by best-selling crime author Peter James, The Crime Book explores over 100 crimes and examines the science, psychology and sociology of criminal behavior. Hear the gory details of each crime and how they were solved, with renowned quotes and detailed criminal profiles letting you delve into the criminal mind.
-
-
It covers a huge span of time. But what is covered is shallow rather than in depth.
- By DJ on 12-06-23
By: DK, and others
-
Electric City
- The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society.
-
-
Feels incomplete
- By M on 12-12-23
By: Thomas Hager
-
Drink
- A Cultural History of Alcohol
- By: Iain Gately
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to present day. Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the War of Independence, Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, slave trade, and failed experiment of national Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world's most famous drinks - and drinkers. Packed with trivia and colorful characters, Drink amounts to an intoxicating history of the world.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Ben on 02-23-22
By: Iain Gately
-
A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
- Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
- By: Heather Heying, Bret Weinstein
- Narrated by: Heather Heying, Bret Weinstein
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet we are listless, divided, and miserable. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, but our political landscape is unmoored, and rates of suicide, loneliness, and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these truths? And how should we respond? For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our troubles is clear: The accelerating rate of change in the modern world has outstripped the capacity of our brains and bodies to adapt.
-
-
Presents conjecture and bias as science
- By Reviewer on 09-16-21
By: Heather Heying, and others
-
Humble Pi
- When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
- By: Matt Parker
- Narrated by: Matt Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
-
-
Fascinating & enlightening even for da mathphobic✏️
- By C. White on 01-23-20
By: Matt Parker
-
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
- By: Tom Phillips
- Narrated by: Nish Kumar
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern humans have come a long way in the 70,000 years they’ve walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we’re true winners. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we’ve managed to truly f--k things up.
-
-
if you think white men are evil
- By Victor Fiore on 12-11-20
By: Tom Phillips
-
The Crime Book
- Big Ideas Simply Explained
- By: DK, Peter James
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Jack the Ripper to the modern-day drug cartels, discover the most notorious crimes and criminals in history. With a foreword written and narrated by best-selling crime author Peter James, The Crime Book explores over 100 crimes and examines the science, psychology and sociology of criminal behavior. Hear the gory details of each crime and how they were solved, with renowned quotes and detailed criminal profiles letting you delve into the criminal mind.
-
-
It covers a huge span of time. But what is covered is shallow rather than in depth.
- By DJ on 12-06-23
By: DK, and others
-
Electric City
- The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society.
-
-
Feels incomplete
- By M on 12-12-23
By: Thomas Hager
-
Endeavour
- The Ship That Changed the World
- By: Peter Moore
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Endeavour is the story of a ship, an idea, and a way of looking at the world. It is grounded in the Enlightenment, an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the name given to a collier - a commonplace coal-carrying vessel - made of oak, bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. No one could have guessed it would go on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British exploration. Endeavour also had a role in American history, witnessing the bloody birth of the republic.
-
-
You must endeavor to stick with Endeavour
- By vance van petten on 08-03-19
By: Peter Moore
-
The Gambler
- How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History
- By: William C. Rempel
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rags-to-riches story of one of America's wealthiest and least-known financial giants, self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian - the daring aviator, movie mogul, risk taker, and business tycoon who transformed Las Vegas and Hollywood to become one of the leading financiers in American business. Kerkorian combined the courage of a World War II pilot, the fortitude of a scrappy boxer, the cunning of an inscrutable poker player, and an unmatched genius for making deals.
-
-
Not enough detail on his business life
- By Zahid Jafry on 06-12-18
-
Ghost Empire
- By: Richard Fidler
- Narrated by: Richard Fidler
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ghost Empire is a rare treasure - an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, realised by a master storyteller. In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire - centred around the legendary Constantinople - we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilisations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder.
-
-
Pleasantly surprised.
- By MF on 01-02-22
By: Richard Fidler
-
Cyber Wars
- Hacks That Shocked the Business World
- By: Charles Arthur
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cyber Wars gives you the dramatic inside stories of some of the world's biggest cyber attacks. These are the game-changing hacks that make organisations around the world tremble and leaders stop and consider just how safe they really are. Charles Arthur provides a gripping account of why each hack happened, what techniques were used, what the consequences were and how they could have been prevented. Cyber attacks are some of the most frightening threats currently facing business leaders, and this book provides a deep insight into understanding how they work.
-
-
For the security professional and average joe
- By Quella on 01-11-19
By: Charles Arthur
-
Uncommon Grounds
- The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
- By: Mark Pendergrast
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs.
-
-
Décent overarching review of coffee history digressing into its American commercialization
- By seajaywood on 05-23-19
By: Mark Pendergrast
-
The Natural Navigator
- By: Tristan Gooley
- Narrated by: Tristan Gooley
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Get ready to put away your map and look up from your GPS with this glorious introduction to the art of finding your way using natural clues. Starting with a simple question - 'Which way am I looking?' - Tristan Gooley blends natural science, myth, folklore and the history of travel to introduce you to the rare and ancient art of finding your way using nature's own signposts, from the feel of a rock to the look of the moon. With Tristan's help, you'll learn why some trees grow the way they do and how they can help you find your way in the countryside.
-
-
It’s okay
- By The Southwestern Lady on 11-24-22
By: Tristan Gooley
-
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book Set
- By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Narrated by: Arina Ii, Kevin Shen
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would you do if you could travel back in time? Discover the internationally bestselling novels of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, now a worldwide phenomenon and BookTok sensation, in this special new book set. Step inside Tokyo’s whimsical Café Funiculi Funicula and travel back in time with a cast of unforgettable characters.
-
-
very profound, lost in translation?
- By Ashlyn C. on 10-06-23
-
Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
-
-
THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
-
The Devil's Playbook
- Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation
- By: Lauren Etter
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Big Tobacco meets Silicon Valley in this gripping exposé of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided—and the vaping epidemic was born.
-
-
Not Just Interesting, but Thrilling
- By Thomas J. Hind on 08-02-21
By: Lauren Etter
-
Caffeine
- How Caffeine Created the Modern World
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.
-
-
Leaves much to be desired
- By Melody H on 02-02-20
By: Michael Pollan
-
Reading Lolita in Tehran
- A Memoir in Books
- By: Azar Nafisi
- Narrated by: Azar Nafisi
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.
-
-
A literary critique of Russian lit.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-15-16
By: Azar Nafisi
-
Untamed
- The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island
- By: Will Harlan
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She eats road kill, wrestles alligators, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built herself in an island wilderness. She’s had three husbands and many lovers, one of whom she shot and killed in self-defense. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self-taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia.
-
-
inspiring story very poorly narrated
- By Mary Lou Lamonda on 11-05-19
By: Will Harlan
Critic reviews
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
“[A] beautifully written, engaging and sprawling portrait of how coffee made modern El Salvador, while it also helped to remake consumer habits worldwide.”—Lizabeth Cohen, New York Times Book Review
“Throughly engrossing . . . [Sedgewick's] literary gifts and prodigious research make for a deeply satisfying reading experience studded with narrative surprise.”—Michael Pollan, bestselling author of This is Your Mind on Plants
“Extremely wide-ranging and well researched, Sedgewick’s story reaches out into American political history, not to mention the history of American breakfast, but it is mostly set in El Salvador, where a large-scale monoculture of coffee began, at the turn of the twentieth century, under the fiendishly brilliant direction of a British expat named James Hill [. . .] The originality and ambition of Sedgewick’s work is that he insistently sees the dynamic between producer and consumer—Central American peasant and North American proletarian—not merely as one of exploited and exploiter but as a manufactured co-dependence between two groups both exploited by capitalism.”—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
What listeners say about Coffeeland
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Watts
- 11-22-23
Slow burn
Started off bored for the first few pages, but then expanded and ventured into unexpected directions
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- EM
- 07-29-20
Came to learn of coffee, learned so much MORE!
I am a Christ-follower with a desire to make this world a better place. While I am an outsider to the hospitality supply chain of coffee from earth to cup to lips, I see a great opportunity to utilize this gracious beverage as a vehicle to impact lives for the better through discipleship. Visit our FB page, International Coffee Cooperative, to join in the conversation and add your perspective.
Reading this coffee history and it's focus on the Hill family and El Salvador, I have been blessed seeing the struggle of others and some triumphs we have gained as a history of relationships and labor and comfort. This book has been a useful education into the scene behind the sip...and like Jaime Hill, I will never be the same.
I highly recommend this book! The thorough research and depth of the coffee story is highly beneficial to our understanding of what we as consumers enjoy because of the work of others.
I listened to the Audible version but plan to buy the hardbound book for my library.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan Fenyvesi
- 12-02-21
Superb history
Lively book that relates a grand historical narrative spanning a century+ using one export crop, coffee, and one family as a central focus. I loved it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jorge l pomalaza raez
- 06-14-20
A must read for every coffee drinker!
From now on, I will never see or drink my cup of coffee the same way I did before.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SAM
- 05-11-21
I love coffee
A absorbing story of coffee in El Salvador from the early days of an English settler to the struggle of the poor native workers trying to eke out life on the plantations.
It isn’t a pretty history but thanks to one family member we can learn.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DTB
- 05-02-20
2 Stories in One
This book is amazing! It tells the story of coffee and of United States history. I learned about how US citizens treated Latin Americans in their own countries. I learned about the many good things that President Hoover did. I learned about the science behind coffee and caffeine. There is so much here in just-One book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wilkins White
- 09-20-24
Rough start, but gets better
Starts out a bit rough. Lots of disparate annecdotes that don't seem to be relevant. If you stick with it, the second half is more engaging.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dale Sarver
- 04-06-22
very interesting
the history of coffee and how it impacted the history of Central America thru the years. very informative. an independent view of El salvodor.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-01-23
revealing
Well told, and an interesting story. The history is fascinating, something everyone who has experienced coffee should know.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- l
- 07-16-22
Superb narration by Jason Culp
An important story, and the narration by Jason Culp is excellent. The issues are important and troubling.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful