I was recently listening to a portion of a TED talk where the speaker claimed that due to a combination of coffee houses being a place where intellectuals gathered and shared ideas, and that they had coffee to drink rather than the ubiquitous alcohol of the day, they greatly accelerated the enlightenment. Is there any truth to this claim?
hi! there's lots of room for more input on this, but meanwhile you might be interested in a couple of posts that touch on the intellectual activities in coffeehouses
Could coffee be a cause of the Industrial Revolution?
When did Tea and Coffee become cheap enough for the masses?
In 17th Century Europe, how were coffee and coffeehouses viewed?