Bryant Simon April 21, 2010

Bryant Simon | Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks with Stephen Fried | Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West Bryant Simons new book, Everything but the Coffee, looks at Starbucks psychological, emotional, political, and sociological power to discover how the chains explosive success and rapid deflation reflect American culture today. Most importantly, it shows that Starbucks speaks to a deeply felt American need for predictability and class standing, community and authenticity, and reveals that Starbucks appeal lies not in the product it sells, but in the easily consumed identity it offers. A two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Stephen Fried is the author of Thing of Beauty, Bitter Pills, The New Rabbi, and Husbandry. In Appetite for America, he tells the story of entrepreneur Fred Harvey, founder of the renowned Harvey House hotels, restaurants, and bookstore chains that served patrons along the Santa Fe railroad well into the 1960s and became a family empire whose marketing and business innovations are still used in chain stores and restaurants today. Ages: Adults