Learning about America from Starbucks
Bryant Simon: Thursday, April 1

Bryant Simon, a professor of history and the director of American studies at Temple University, has spent the past five years visiting more than 450 Starbucks locations in 11 different countries to find out why so many people are willing to overpay when it comes to their daily cups of coffee. Simon will talk about his findings (the basis for his 2009 book) during his visit to the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Thursday, April 1. The public portion of his talk, "Learning About America from Starbucks," begins at 6:45 p.m., with free seating on a first-come basis. Simon will then be available to sign copies of his new book, Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks (University of California Press, 2009).
Among Simon's discoveries, and a talking point for his presentation at Claremont McKenna, is that Starbucks thrives by selling the public things they want and desirea business plan that has less to do with coffee and more to do an upwardly mobile image that serves up status, retail therapy, and connections to community and politics. Starbucks, as he shows, sold us back our desiresdesires created by broad changes in American life and thinking during the past 20 years. The stories Simon uncovered on his caffeinated journey are not always uplifting or comforting. Looking closely at our latt? lives produces a somewhat unflattering portrait of a growing nation of citizen consumers and its favorite coffee dispenser: Starbucks.
Simon writes a lot about his continued exploration of Starbucks in his blog: http://everythingbutthecoffee.net. In addition to Everything But the Coffee, he has written three other books and collections, including Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004) and A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948.