Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America

Using coffee as a common denominator and focusing on landholding patterns, labour mobilization, class structure, political power and political ideologies, this text examines how Latin American countries of the late 19th and early 20th century responded to the growing global demand for coffee.

---

In "Coffee, Society and Power in Latin America", a international group of historians, anthropologists, and sociologists examine the production, processing and marketing of this important commodity. Using coffee as a common denominator and focusing on landholding patterns, labour mobilization, class structure, political power, and political ideologies, the authors examine how Latin American countries of the late 19th and early 20th century responded to the growing global demand for coffee. This volume offers an integrated comparative study of class formation in the coffee zones of Latin America as they were incorporated into the world economy. It offers a theoretical and methodological approach to comparative historical analysis and should serve as a critique and counter to those who stress the homogenizing tendencies of export agriculture. The book should be of interest not only to experts on coffee economies, but also to students and scholars of Latin America, labour history, the economics of development, and political economy.