{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T232332Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/151282755X?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"151282755X","authors":["Michelle Craig McDonald"],"book_id":"9781512827552","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/coffee-nation-151282755X","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781512827552.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","description":"Illuminates how coffee tied the economic future of the early United States to the wider Atlantic world Coffee is among the most common goods traded and consumed worldwide, and so omnipresent its popularity is often taken for granted. But even everyday habits have a history. When and why coffee become part of North American daily life is at the center of Coffee Nation . Using a wide range of archival, quantitative, and material evidence, Michelle Craig McDonald follows coffee from the slavery-based plantations of the Caribbean and South America, through the balance sheets of Atlantic world merchants, into the coffeehouses, stores, and homes of colonial North Americans, and ultimately to the growing import/export businesses of the early nineteenth-century United States that rebranded this exotic good as an American staple. The result is a sweeping history that explores how coffee shaped the lives of enslaved laborers and farmers, merchants and retailers, consumers and advertisers. Coffee Nation also challenges traditional interpretations of the American Revolution, as coffee’s spectacular profitability in US markets and popularity on the new nation’s tables by the mid-nineteenth century was the antithesis of independence. From its beginnings as a colonial commodity in the early eighteenth century, coffee’s popularity soared to become a leading global economy by the 1830s. The United States dominated this growth, by importing ever-increasing amounts of the commodity for drinkers at home and developing a lucrative re-export trade to buyers overseas. But while income generated from coffee sales made up an expanding portion of US trade revenue, the market always depended on reliable access to a commodity that the nation could not grow for itself. By any measure, the coffee industry was a financial success story, but one that runs counter to the dominant narrative of national autonomy. Distribution, not production, lay at the heart of North America’s coffee business, and its profitability and expansion relied on securing and maintaining ties first with the Caribbean and then Latin America.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781512827552","publication_date":"20250527","publisher":"University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.","slug":"coffee-nation","subtitle":"How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States","title":"Coffee Nation"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7324,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7073,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7021,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7324,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7073,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7021,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BUS069020","confidence_band":"high","label":"International Economics","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BUS073000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Commerce & Trade","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS038000","confidence_band":"high","label":"The Americas History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Colonial America (to 1775)","score":0.7324,"slug":"colonial-america-to-1775"},{"label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7073,"slug":"19th-century-america"},{"label":"Revolutionary America (1775-1800)","score":0.7021,"slug":"revolutionary-america-1775-1800"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Colonial America (to 1775)","Good for readers interested in american","Good for readers who enjoy Colonial America (to 1775) and 19th-Century America."],"related_lists":[{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his036040-united-states-19th-century","title":"United States 19th Century Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his036040-united-states-19th-century"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Kostya Kennedy"],"book_id":"9781250341372","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250341372.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":19.0298,"title":"The Ride","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250341372"},{"authors":["Edward L. Ayers"],"book_id":"9781324086307","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324086307.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":17.5354,"title":"American Visions","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324086307"},{"authors":["Sarah Vowell"],"book_id":"9781594631740","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781594631740.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":17.3885,"title":"Lafayette in the Somewhat United States","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781594631740"},{"authors":["Jon Meacham"],"book_id":"9798217154524","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798217154524.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":17.3499,"title":"The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798217154524"},{"authors":["Richard Bell"],"book_id":"9780593719510","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593719510.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.8394,"title":"The American Revolution and the Fate of the World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593719510"},{"authors":["Gordon S. Wood"],"book_id":"9780812970418","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812970418.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.8274,"title":"The American Revolution","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812970418"},{"authors":["Geoffrey C. Ward","Ken Burns"],"book_id":"9780525658672","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525658672.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.8107,"title":"The American Revolution","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525658672"},{"authors":["Alan Taylor"],"book_id":"9780393354768","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393354768.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":16.8038,"title":"American Revolutions","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393354768"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:atlantic caribbean west indian history"],"label":"History","score":0.9238,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:business history"],"label":"Business","score":0.134,"slug":"business"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:coffeehouses and politics"],"label":"Politics","score":0.1054,"slug":"politics"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:nineteenth century international trade"],"label":"Century","score":0.083,"slug":"century"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: History, Business, Politics.","Reading lane: Colonial America (to 1775) and 19th Century America.","Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":8,"goodreads_reviews_count":4,"quality_score":0.8353}}