from David M. Fahey
Miami University (Ohio)

Here is a description of a course taught at my university with history 
and international studies credit.

HST/IES F112 First Year Seminar: Coffee and Globalization–Past and 
Present Drink that “Transformed Our World”-- MWF 11:00-11:50
Dr. Robert Thurston and Dr. Sandra Woy-Hazelton
MP Historical Perspective

Since the seventeenth century, coffee’s impact around the world has 
been huge. The second-most valuable commodity traded legally around the 
globe today, coffee is an ideal vehicle through which to study key 
aspects of European, American, and non-western development. Coffee was 
one of the first bulk items sought after by Europeans, and it was 
intimately linked to the growth of imperialism and unfree labor from 
Indonesia to Latin America. The history of coffee and its use is one of 
the best examples of globalization’s long, deep roots. A close look at 
commodities like coffee and sugar reveals much about the growth of 
early capitalism and how it depended as much on romanticized images of 
spaces and products as on careful calculations of profit and loss.