Emphasizing the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this volume brings together scholars from nine countries who study coffee markets and societies over the last five centuries in fourteen countries, on four continents, and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The chapters analyze the creation and function of commodity, labor, and financial markets; the role of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in the formation of coffee societies; the interaction between technology and ecology; and the impact of colonial powers, nationalist regimes, and the forces of the world economy in the forging of economic development and political democracy.