Re-posted from The American Interest
Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism by Bartow J. Elmore, W.W. Norton & Co, 2014, 432 pp., $27.95
Which Coca-Cola is the real “Real Thing”? Is it Citizen Coke, the responsible corporation that promotes local economic development and brings happiness and the American way of life to millions around the world? Or is it Killer Coke, a company that exploits public water, transportation, and waste systems to profit at the public’s expense, relentlessly promotes products to children that contribute to premature death, despoils the environment with its waste, underpays and mistreats the workers who produce its ingredients, and lobbies to defeat laws that protect public health?
In Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, Bartow J. Elmore, an environmental historian at the University of Alabama, tells us that the answer isn’t “either/or.” Citizen Coke and Killer Coke are conjoined twins, each providing the other with essential life support.
To read the whole review, visit The American Interest
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