This is an interesting and readable introduction, but nothing more. Iris, the co-author's, memoirs of growing up in an Indian tea "garden" are more interesting than the rest of the book. I think of books like this as "history lite," interesting anecdotes, major figures, not much analysis of how it fits into larger historical context. ( )

Barely a 3 ... maybe 2.5 for "ambivalent"? There are bits and pieces of interesting story here, but it is rather dull throughout. Edit this down to what is interesting and it would take 50 pages.

Overall: Dull and not worth much time. ( )

Iris MacFarlane wrote a touching story about her life on the tea garden in India. Then Alan MacFarlane proceeded to write the kind of history that lifts tea up to its rightful place above all other beverages. I like it better than other perspectives on history because its focus is that superiority of tea.

Of particular note was how tea was compared to wine and beer. It was explained how the alcoholic drinks could never conquer the world because they take too many resources of land and labor. They were always meant for the elites in moderation while tea could be enjoyed by the masses--the drink of everyman. This history was the most inspiring when it came time to write my own book.

Another tea history book. It was okay. I couldn't understand what the writers were getting at. Obviously many have suffered hardships as a result of the tea industry, and it has affected history and health in many ways. That's what they were saying, but it was a bit scattered in making its point. ( )

A strange and unsatisfactory work by two authors, this feels very much like two books packaged as one.

One of these books reads the like work of a health nut, an extended panegyric on the joys of tea, primarily the supposed health benefits. The second is a long rant about the evils of growing tea in Assam and the part the British had in this.
Neither of these books is especially inspiring.

The rant against the British would have been a much more worthwhile work if it had placed the supposed evils of the British in context, comparing what they created to what had gone before, and to India outside the tea plantation.
A chapter towards the end claims to make some attempt to provide a balanced viewpoint, but does nothing to actually place the situation in context; instead it simply treats us to a "he said, she said" view of history.

The book included two or three interesting points, for example:
* Introduction of tea in the west contributed to public health because it resulted in boiled water being drunk;
* Likewise it contributed to a substantial reduction in drunkenness because it could be drunk all day without side effects;
but it really wasn't worth the hassle of wading through the dreck to get to them. ( )