Research Catalog

Title

For God, country and Coca-Cola : the unauthorized history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it / Mark Pendergrast.

Author

Pendergrast, Mark.

Publication

New York : Scribner's ; Toronto : Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan, [1993], ©1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 556 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• How did an innocuous soft drink, more than 99% sweetened water, come to be regarded as "the sublimated essence of all that America stands for"? For God, Country and Coca-Cola is a cultural, social, and economic history of America as seen through the green glass of a Coke bottle. And what a quintessentially American tale it is. Coca-Cola began humbly as a patent medicine amid the fervor and chaos of Reconstruction Atlanta. A shrewd marketeer saw its value as a beverage, and it rapidly grew through the Gilded Age to become the dominant consumer product of the American Century. The key to Coca-Cola's success was ubiquitous advertising, as the Company's master myth-makers first created and then quenched the thirst of a nation. And when World War II carried American troops overseas, the soft drink went as well, laying the foundation for an enduring and lucrative presence.
• Drawing on previously untapped archival sources, For God, Country and Coca-Cola paints vivid portraits of the entrepreneurs who led the Company: pious Methodist Asa Candler, who nourished the fledgling enterprise across the threshold of a century; cigar-chomping Robert Woodruff, who hosted presidents at his Georgia plantation; and the aristocratic Roberto Goizueta, whose cosmopolitan background gave him the vision to reach global markets. All have left their indelible imprints on Coca-Cola. Here, too, is a colorful supporting cast of hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made the soft drink the most recognizable trademark in the world. The underside of Coca-Cola is also here: shady legal proceedings, cozy arrangements with politicians, brutal treatment of competitors and Third World workers. But, despite its occasionally tarnished image, the Company has marched zealously forward with its cherished product - and its global conquest.
• Provocative, controversial, and always entertaining, For God, Country and Coca-Cola reveals how Coke has irrevocably transformed our world. As family saga, cultural history, and, finally, the complete story of an American icon, this book is "the Real Thing."

Subjects

• Coca-Cola Company History
• Soft drink industry > United States > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 525-536) and index.

Contents

• Foreword / E. J. Kahn, Jr. -- Prologue: A Parable (January 1, 1985) -- Pt. I. In the Beginning (1886-1899). 1. Time Capsule: The Golden Age of Quackery. 2. What Sigmund Freud, Pope Leo, and John Pemberton Had in Common. 3. The Tangled Chain of Title. 4. Asa Candler: His Triumphs and Headaches. 5. Bottle It: The World's Stupidest, Smartest Contract -- Pt. II. Heretics and True Believers (1900-1922). 6. Success Under Siege. 7. Dr. Wiley Weighs In. 8. The Sinister Syndicate. 9. Coca-Cola's Civil War -- Pt. III. The Golden Age (1923-1949). 10. Robert W. Woodruff: The Boss Takes the Helm. 11. A Euphoric Depression and Pepsi's Push. 12. The $4,000 Bottle: Coca-Cola Goes to War. 13. Coca-Cola Uber Alles -- Pt. IV. Trouble in the Promised Land (1950-1979). 14. Coca-Colonization and the Communists. 15. Breaking the Commandments. 16. Paul Austin's Turbulent Sixties. 17. Big Red's Uneasy Slumber -- Pt. V. The Corporate Era (1980-1989). 18. Roberto Goizueta's Bottom Line.
• 19. The Marketing Blunder of the Century. 20. Global Fizz. 21. World Without End? -- Epilogue: The Nineties Erupt (1990-1992) -- Appendix: The Sacred Formula.

ISBN

0684193477

LCCN

92030317

OCLC

• 26502804
• ocm26502804

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries