For God, Country and Coca-Cola : The Unauthorized History of the World's Most Popular Soft Drink (New ed)

Mark Pendergrast's history is a microcosm of American enterprise.

Invented as a patent medicine with a cocaine kick, Coca-Cola is today 99 per-cent sugar water, the world's most distributed product, available in over 185 countries, more than the membership of the United Nations. All a far cry from the chance invention of Dr. John Smith Pemberton, a morphine addict in Atlanta, Georgia, just over a century ago.