Coffee and revolution
Far more controversial than the coffee-houses’ functions as centres of scientific, literary and business exchange, however, was their potential as centres of political dissent. Coffee’s reputation as a seditious beverage goes back at least as far as 1511, the date of the first known attempt to ban the consumption of coffee, in Mecca. […] It was at the Café de Foy, eyed by police spies while standing on a table brandishing two pistols, that Camille Desmoulins roused his countrymen with his historic appeal—“Aux armes, citoyens!”—on July 12th 1789. The Bastille fell two days later, and the French revolution had begun. Jules Michelet, a French historian, subsequently noted that those “who assembled day after day in the Café de Procope saw, with penetrating glance, in the depths of their black drink, the illumination of the year of the revolution.”
So, like, with a Starbucks on every corner, the world should be abuzz with radical thinking, right? Right?
(Via Follow Me Here )
I have a picture (of a watercolor painting) in a book on the the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, whose caption reads:
Where "Young Hungary" met: the Cafe Pilvax at Pest. If there are any radicals here, they are obscured by the dandies.
Which is probably appropriate to the modern equivalent as well.
Posted by Timprov on January 16 2004 20:10
There is a modern comparison - often, when wanting to discuss 'sentitive' subjects, my colleagues and I will head off to a nearby cafe. Nothing so sensitive as sedition/revolution of course, but the concept is similar.
Posted by Malach on January 18 2004 18:23
Can anyone tell me where one can find the Michelet quote above that Zed had entetred? I have looked for this exact info, but to no avail.
thanks
Posted by Jeff on February 18 2004 23:47