Augustine Sedgewick – författare

*Winner of the 2022 Cherasco International Prize*'Thoroughly engrossing' Michael Pollan, The Atlantic'Wonderful, energising' Kathryn Hughes, The GuardianCoffee is one of the most valuable commodities in the history of the global economy and the world's most popular drug. The very word 'coffee' is one of the most widespread on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's brilliant new history tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 400-year transformation into an everyday necessity.The story is one that few coffee drinkers know. Coffeeland centres on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of nineteenth-century Manchester, founded one of the world's great coffee dynasties. Adapting the innovations of the industrial revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped to turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history, a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality and violence.The book follows coffee from the Hill family plantations into the United States, through the San Francisco roasting plants into supermarkets, kitchens and work places, and finally into today's omnipresent cafés. Sedgewick reveals the unexpected consequences of the rise of coffee, which reshaped large areas of the tropics, transformed understandings of energy, and ultimately made us dependent on a drug served in a cup.'Gripping' The Spectator'An eye-opening, stimulating brew' The Economist

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice“Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker   The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world   Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world’s great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history—a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname “Coffeeland,” but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present. Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.

*Winner of the 2022 Cherasco International Prize*'Thoroughly engrossing' Michael Pollan, The Atlantic'Wonderful, energising' Kathryn Hughes, The GuardianCoffee is one of the most valuable commodities in the history of the global economy and the world's most popular drug. The very word 'coffee' is one of the most widespread on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's brilliant new history tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 400-year transformation into an everyday necessity.The story is one that few coffee drinkers know. Coffeeland centres on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of nineteenth-century Manchester, founded one of the world's great coffee dynasties. Adapting the innovations of the industrial revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped to turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history, a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality and violence.The book follows coffee from the Hill family plantations into the United States, through the San Francisco roasting plants into supermarkets, kitchens and work places, and finally into today's omnipresent cafés. Sedgewick reveals the unexpected consequences of the rise of coffee, which reshaped large areas of the tropics, transformed understandings of energy, and ultimately made us dependent on a drug served in a cup.'Gripping' The Spectator'An eye-opening, stimulating brew' The Economist

An Economist, GQ and Times Book of the Year 2025An ambitious history of masculinity and family, from the Bronze Age to the modern day, Fatherhood dares to offer a more caring and affirmative vision of the roles men currently play in society.'Superbly intelligent . . . a rewarding Sapiens-style big history' - The Sunday Times'A lightness of touch that recalls Bill Bryson or Craig Brown at their non-fiction best' - The ObserverWhat is fatherhood, and where did it come from? How has the role of men in families and society changed across thousands of years? What does the history of fatherhood reveal about what it means to be a dad today?From the anxious philosophers of ancient Athens and Henry VIII’s obsessive quest for an heir, to Charles Darwin’s theories of human origins, Bob Dylan’s take down of ‘The Man’, and beyond, Sedgewick shows how successive generations of men have shaped our understanding of what it means to be and have a father, and in turn our ideas of who we are, where we come from and what we are capable of.

An ambitious history of masculinity and family, from the Bronze Age to the modern day, Fatherhood dares to offer a more caring and affirmative vision of the roles men currently play in society.What is fatherhood, and where did it come from? How has the role of men in families and society changed across thousands of years? What does the history of fatherhood reveal about what it means to be a dad today?Chronicling the intimate stories and struggles of some of history’s most famous fathers, historian Augustine Sedgewick explores the origins and transformation of one of the most potent ideas in human history: fatherhood.From the anxious philosophers of ancient Athens and Henry VIII’s obsessive quest for an heir, to Charles Darwin’s theories of human origins, Bob Dylan’s take down of ‘The Man’, and beyond, Sedgewick shows how successive generations of men have shaped our understanding of what it means to be and have a father, and in turn our ideas of who we are, where we come from and what we are capable of._____Praise for Augustine Sedgewick’s Coffeeland:‘Thoroughly engrossing . . . a deeply satisfying reading experience’ - Michael Pollan‘Wonderful, energizing’ - The Guardian'There is much here to entertain, educate and stimulate' - Financial Times'Sedgewick is a stylish writer' - i'Epic, illuminating . . . a pocket history of globalisation itself' - Telegraph

An Economist, GQ and Times Book of the Year 2025An ambitious history of masculinity and family, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary 'crisis of men', Fatherhood dares to offer a more caring and affirmative vision of the roles men play at home and in the world.‘Superbly intelligent . . . a rewarding Sapiens-style big history’ – The Sunday Times‘A lightness of touch that recalls Bill Bryson or Craig Brown at their non-fiction best’ – The ObserverWhat is fatherhood, and where did it come from? How has the role of men in families and society changed across thousands of years? What does the history of fatherhood reveal about what it means to be a dad today?From the anxious philosophers of ancient Athens and Henry VIII’s obsessive quest for an heir, to Charles Darwin’s theories of human origins, Bob Dylan’s take down of ‘The Man’, and beyond, historian Augustine Sedgewick shows how successive generations of men have shaped our understanding of what it means to be and have a father, and in turn our ideas of who we are, where we come from and what we are capable of.

An Economist, GQ and Times Book of the Year 2025An ambitious history of masculinity and family, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary 'crisis of men', Fatherhood dares to offer a more caring and affirmative vision of the roles men play at home and in the world.‘Superbly intelligent . . . a rewarding Sapiens-style big history’ – The Sunday Times‘A lightness of touch that recalls Bill Bryson or Craig Brown at their non-fiction best’ – The ObserverWhat is fatherhood, and where did it come from? How has the role of men in families and society changed across thousands of years? What does the history of fatherhood reveal about what it means to be a dad today?From the anxious philosophers of ancient Athens and Henry VIII’s obsessive quest for an heir, to Charles Darwin’s theories of human origins, Bob Dylan’s take down of ‘The Man’, and beyond, historian Augustine Sedgewick shows how successive generations of men have shaped our understanding of what it means to be and have a father, and in turn our ideas of who we are, where we come from and what we are capable of.

';Superbly intelligent[a] rewarding Sapiens-style big history.' The Times (London) A bold and original history of the invention and transformation of masculinity's most important institution, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary ';crisis of men', told through a collective portrait of emblematic fathers who have helped to define our fundamental ideas of familial love, political power, and what it means to be a man.What makes a father? At least since the beginning of the written historical record five thousand years ago, ideas of paternity have shaped basic human understanding of who we are, where we come from, and what we are capable ofidentity and inheritance in all its forms. Yet we know little about where and why the concept of fatherhood arose in the first place, or how it has changed over time. In this acclaimed book, prizewinning historian Augustine Sedgewick, celebrated for his ';literary gifts and prodigious research' (The Atlantic), traces for the first time the origins and evolution of fatherhood in Western culture, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary ';crisis of men'. With intimate detail, Sedgewick reconstructs the lives of some of history's most famous fathersAristotle, Saint Augustine, Henry VIII, Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, Freud, Bob Dylan, and moreto show how, in moments of historic crisis and conflict, men developed new ideals of fatherhood that helped sustain their power and authority within the family and beyond. Yet the history of fatherhood is not just the story of patriarchy, arguably the oldest and most widespread form of social inequality. Nor is it simply the story of paternal care and affection. Instead, it is the story of how these twin strands became so entangled that they are often indistinguishable. Fatherhood takes us on a journey across hundreds of generations to uncover the roots of modern masculinity and help us see one of the most meaningful parts of our lives in a new light.

“Superbly intelligent…[a] rewarding Sapiens-style big history.” —The Times (London) A bold and original history of fatherhood, exploring its invention and transformation from the Bronze Age to the present through a collective portrait of emblematic fathers who have helped to define how the world should be ruled and what it means to be a man.Fatherhood is one of the most meaningful aspects of human culture, but we know little about when or where fatherhood first emerged, or even how or why. Despite its enigmatic beginnings, fatherhood has, for centuries, given shape to ideas about the world, defined human experiences, and provided the foundation of patriarchy. The history of fatherhood is not just the story of one of humanity’s great values: caring for those who cannot care for themselves. And it is not merely the story of patriarchy—“the power of fathers”—which is arguably the oldest and most widespread form of social hierarchy and political oppression. It is the story of how these twin strands of history became so entangled that they are often indistinguishable. In Fatherhood, celebrated historian Augustine Sedgewick explains how this style of parenting emerged in the first place, why it has changed over time, and whether it will endure as we know it, despite its extraordinary costs. Told through the lives of emblematic fathers like Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Henry VIII, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud, this is an ambitious yet intimate look at how masculinity has evolved and how men have come to hold disproportionate power by expanding and reinforcing the power of fathers in times of crisis. Sedgewick, acclaimed for his “literary gifts and prodigious research” (The Atlantic), takes us from the Bronze Age to the present to revolutionize our understanding of fathers and challenge the fictions that have surrounded them for centuries. Fatherhood transforms our understanding of this fundamental idea, experience, and institution, allowing us to better know our past and re-envision our common future.