Michael Pollan published an extensive review of Coffeeland in The Atlantic. Pollan's review describes how Sedgewick ties the advent of coffee to the rise of modern capitalism, as its replacement of alcohol as workers' common workplace beverage allowed the burgeoning white-collar cohart to work longer hours with improved focus on office tasks, coffee being "a form of instant energy – a work drug", this becoming the basis of the coffee break – an institution originated to benefit the employer (by energizing workers), not the employee.[3]