For God, Country and Coca-Cola

Mark Pendergrast asks how a drink that is mostly sweetened water came to be regarded as the sublimated essence of all that America stands for, and answers with a cultural, social and economic history of the country seen through the green glass of a Coke bottle. The story begins with a patent medicine sold amid the fervour and chaos of Reconstruction Atlanta, moves through the Gilded Age as a shrewd marketeer recognised the mixture's value as a beverage, and ends with the dominant consumer product of the American century. The key, on this account, was ubiquitous advertising, the company's myth-makers first creating and then quenching the thirst of a nation. When the Second World War carried American troops overseas the drink travelled with them, laying the foundation of a lasting and lucrative presence abroad. Drawing on archival sources the publisher describes as previously untapped, the book paints portraits of the men who led the company, among them Asa Candler, Robert Woodruff and Roberto Goizueta, alongside a supporting cast of hustlers, swindlers and advertising men. The underside is here too, including shady legal proceedings, cosy arrangements with politicians and harsh treatment of competitors and of workers overseas.

Written from the library catalogue record for the Scribner's edition at the Internet Archive.

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