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.