Citizen Coke: The History of Coca-Cola w/ Bartow Elmore

Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known products on planet earth, but did you ever wonder how a brown fizzy drink fueled the rise of a corporate juggernaut? The answer, says Ohio State historian Bartow Elmore, has everything to do with its business structure. In this episode, Bart offers his take on how Coke went from Atlanta soda parlors in the late 19th century to markets across the globe in less than a century, all along reaping tremendous benefits from public infrastructure while passing the bulk of its environmental costs on to others.  Bart also talks about the difficulties of doing research on powerful corporations, why he thinks we should care about environmental history, and the meaning of what he calls "Coca-Cola Capitalism."

Dr. Bartow Elmore is Professor of History at The Ohio State University and author of Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2015). You can find out more about his work, including his book on the history of Monsanto at his website, BartElmore.com.

This episode was originally aired as episode 140 on August 26, 2019. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.