Bryant Simon is professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University in Philadelphia. Over the last five years, he has visited over 450 Starbucks in ten countries doing research for his book, Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks (University of California Press, 2009).

This is not, however, just a study of Starbucks, but rather an exploration of American life both in the states and abroad in the 21st Century. Simon's research explores the desires of daily life as they are revealed on the comfy coaches and in the drive-thru lanes of Starbucks from Maine to Mexico. As he looks at what it means to consume Starbucks and what this tells about this troubling moment in the nation's history, he also investigates what Starbucks consumes of us our labor, our landscapes, our emotions, and our politics.

Bryant Simon is the author of A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Textile Workers, 1910-1948 (1998) and Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004). He is also a co-editor along with Glenda Gilmore and Jane Dailey of Jumpin' Jim Crow': Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights (2000). His research on Atlantic City has earned awards from the Organization of American Historians, Urban History Association, and the New Jersey Historical Commission. In addition, Simon was in 2007 a senior Fulbright scholar at the National University of Singapore. He currently serves as an Organization of American Historians' Distinguished Lecturer.

For contact information:

Bryantsimon46@yahoo.com 

215-204-2429