A Secret History of Coffee, Coca Cola [Hardcover]

This fascinating and beautifully illustrated piece of visual journalism, six years in the making, traces the little-known interwoven histories of coffee, the coca leaf and kola nut, Coca-Cola, caffeine, and cocaine, within a larger subtext of the role of prohibition in modern culture . . .? A straight forward and accessible text . . . Cort?s highly detailed paintings call up concomitant issues and famous faces as well . . . In dense passages describing political payments between corporate interests and federal narcotics officials, the reproductionin Cort?s deft watercolorsof memos, official letters, and newspaper articles serves as an indictment of the rule of law with loopholes for the profit minded. This is an excellent introduction to the complexities of American interests, the realities of corrupt rationale invoked in the pursuit of world health, and the need to take a longer view than the immediate to see how substance and substance abuse both share space and operate on different planes. Right and wrong are not black and white but form a gray of varying shades. If you have ever wondered about the coca in Coca-Cola, the caffeine in coffee, or the irrational pharmacological prejudices in our drug laws, this charmingly eccentric combination of detailed historical research and child-friendly drawings is worth your attention. [ Cort?s gained popular stature last year with his sweetly counterpoint art in satiric? As works of art, Cort?ss illustrations are stunning and intricate. As reportage, the book is obsessive in all the right ways, nailing down hidden facts to reveal a truth I never would have expected. It is rare to find serious reportage that reads like a novel; Cort?s has pulled off the mind-boggling trick of making it read like a childrens book.