For God, Country & Coca-Cola?is the definitive history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it. From its origins as a patent medicine in Reconstruction Atlanta through its rise as the dominant consumer beverage of the American century, the story of Coke is as singular, appealing, and effervescent as the drink itself. Mark Pendergrast recounts more than a hundred years of the Coca-Cola Company with verve and a historian's eye for the telling detail, aligning Coke's success with the emergence of that other great American innovation--modern capitalism.

With vivid portraits of the colorful cast of entrepreneurs, hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made Coca-Cola the most recognized trademark in the world--and with a new afterword bringing the story up to today--this is business history at its best: authoritative, enlightening, and fun. Like Coke itself, For God, Country and Coca-Cola is "The Real Thing."