his pop history book about the role cafés played in the development of pivotal historic events in some European countries would've been much better if it had improved on these three aspects: writing and length of chapters, geographical scope to include non-Western European cpuntires too, and limiting itself to Europe without a detour to the US given title and aim of the book.

A History of Europe in 12 Cafes by Monica Porter is exceptional, gorgeous and so beautifully written. Tea is my main food group, but I absolutely devoured this delectable story of the evolution of the European Coffee House

Porter takes us on a journey through time and place, exploring the development of the imbibemet of coffee (it used to be considered an "enfeebling liquor" and the establishments to be "hotbeds of dissent and intrigue". Well, in respect of the former, contemporary coffee lovers would consider their drink of choice to prevent or restore the self from an "enfeebled" state and as for the latter, many a coffee house has sent forth the creators, the great minds and the world-changers of history

This is the beauty of this book. Beyond the history of coffee drinking and coffee houses, it chronicles notable people through history and poignant events that shaped our world as it is today. A wonderful read for lovers of history, culture, global studies, and of course, coffee.

This book is absolutely fascinating, the writing is incredibly engaging and the illustrations are perfection .

Thank you very, very much to Netgalley, Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History and the exceptional author, Monica Porter for this very kindly gifted ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

After being granted a special advance read on this book, I am sorry to say it was not what I expected. I did re-read the description to see if I totally misread that, but found the book not totally matching it. I expected this book to tell the history of the cafes themselves up to the present, with historical points in which they found themselves. I found that the book does tell some about the cafes, but the cafe gets lost within the history of the country and the people. To me, there was just a lot more history about the country the cafe was in and the history of the people living there. Sometimes I would forget about the cafe all together. I thank NetGalley and I thank Pen & Sword for the advance read.