A History of the World in 6 Glasses

This would not have been a book that I would have bought if it were not a kindle deal. There are at least three drinks listed that I have never even drank once (beer, wine, or hard liquor). However, I am glad that I ended up buying it and I learned a great deal about these six beverages and their place in world history. Tom Standage writes a fun and exciting book that really captivates the attention. One of the reviews called it "history light" and that is a perfect way to describe it. There is no agenda other than to illustrate the fact that there is no singular story of history but only many different histories that should be explored; at least that is what author stated in the beginning. Here are some of the reasons that I enjoyed this book. One of things I like so much about this book is the writing style of the author. For one thing, this book is fast. It is over 300 hundred pages but it seems to fly by very quickly. A book about beverages has a great potential for being boring if not handled correctly. He does not belabor moot points or milk any concepts but keeps moving from one scene to another as it were. He gets down to the major events and developments without diverging onto bunny trails. Another thing is that he is not just talking about beverages but he has a point that he comes to in each section. That point is something relevant and clear so there is no need for guessing at what he is trying to say. He begins with the most important of human beverages; water. From there he explores the roots of beer and its importance in early agricultural societies. He demonstrates that beer had a cohesive quality that brought people together. It was more than a drink, it forged social bonds and was a major staple of early human life. He moves on to show how wine came to supplant beer in a certain respect. It became a drink that ultimately ended up representing sophistication and culture. I love how he demonstrated that wine was a drink often offered to deity. Like beer before it wine was something thought to possess a mystical quality. To this day we toast one another with both beer and wine as if to invoke the magical properties that our ancestors thought them to have. He moves onto hard liquors demonstrating that it played a role in the American Revolution. The colonies love for rum and the brothels that the Sons of Liberty met in served to solidify its unique role in early American history. The next beverage was coffee and I found that one to be the most interesting. It is amazing to think of the role that coffee played in many of the intellectual developments of the enlightenment era. Coffeehouses were the places that great minds met to discuss and debate various issues. It was a coffeehouse discussion that birthed Newton's Principe and it was on the steps of a coffeehouse that the French Revolution kicked off. Tea was also a fascinating drink to read about and it has played no small role in history. If you don't believe it then you might ought to think about what happened in the harbor at Boston during the winter of 1773. Lastly, there was coke. It's development has been a part of the ongoing process of globalization. Although, I am not expert on beverage history, I was not able to locate anything about the drinks that I thought was amiss. There was one statement the author made that was a little suspect. He claimed that neolithic people thought beer was magical because of its ability to alter consciousness. While that is likely I am not sure that it can be demonstrated conclusively or stated as a "matter of fact." Neolithic people left us no reason to assert that. I think later in history that can be seen but perhaps it is leap to ascribe it to the Neolithic period. In another location he mentioned 0 C.E. That that was a major mistake as everyone knows there is no year 0! I am surprised that a historian would make that mistake and more surprised that a publisher did not catch it. He claims that Theodosius divided the Empire into east and west. Actually Diocletian had divided the Empire into four parts long before Theodosius I. These are not major except for the 0 C.E. which is kind of bad. Ultimately, while I would not have bought this book had it not been on sale I am glad that I did. It was a really fun book to read. I found it exciting and original. It is not everyday that you can pick up a book about beverages and thoroughly enjoy it. As a historian and teacher myself I plan on using some of this material in my classroom. The chapter on Coca Cola is a great way to talk about globalization and even cultural diffusion! I love the way he reined it all in talking about how people are beginning to realize how important water really is. After thousands of years we have come full circle. It was a lot of fun and it is certainly worth your time and money.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" is a view of the history of the world through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Science correspondent and accomplished author Tom Standage has come up with a clever book that shows how the aforementioned drinks were reflections of the eras in which they were created. This 311-page book is broken out by the six drinks (two chapters per drink): Beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt, Wine in Greece and Rome, Spirits in the Colonial Period, Coffee in the Age of Reason, Tea and the British Empire and Coca-Cola and the Rise of America. Positives: 1. A fun way to learn about history. 2. A well-written and well researched book. Reads like a novel. 3. A fascinating topic. The author cleverly charts the flow of history through six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. 4. Every beverage has a story and the author does a good job of relaying it. 5. Great use of basic science to explain how the beverages were discovered. 6. Interesting tidbits throughout the book. This is the greatest strength of this book. Some of the stories will definitely stick with you. 7. Interesting perspective on beer, "it seems most likely that beer drinking was just one of the many factors that helped to tip the balance away from hunting and gathering and toward farming and a sedentary lifestyle based on small settlements". 8. Guaranteed to learn something amusing, spoiler alert..."The workers who built the pyramids were paid in beer..." 9. I love the stories of how mythology and beverages intertwine, "According to one legend, Dionysus, the god of wine, fled to Greece to escape beer-loving Mesopotamia". 10. The philosophy of drinking wine. 11. What wine represented to the Romans. Once again, some amusing stories, a recurring theme of this book. 12. The relationship between some of these beverages to medicine/health. 13. The relationship between the beverages and religion. Amazing... 14. The invention of distillation. 15. Interesting stories of how some of these beverages were used as a form of currency. 16. The evil trade of slavery and how alcohol was related. Enlightening information. 17. Find out what truly was the decisive factor in the Royal Navy's victory over the French and Spanish fleets. 18. The impact of rum for the North American colonists. Everything to do with American history and its relation to alcohol was fascinating. Colonialism by the bottles. 19. The second half of the book dealing with caffeinated drinks was superior to the first half. 20. The diffusion of rationalism and the relationship to coffee. Great stuff. 21. The history of coffeehouses. The drink of intellectuals. Great stories. 22. Each chapter opens up with a quote, "Better to be deprived of food for three days than of tea for one". Chinese proverb. 23. China, England and it's a tea thing. Fascinating history. 24. The fascinating history of tea. Very popular with women, who had been excluded from coffeehouses. 25. My favorite chapters in the book had to do with Coca Cola. 26. Coca Cola and lawsuits. "Wiley put Coca-Cola on trial in 1911, in a federal case titled the United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola. In court, religious fundamentalists railed against the evils of Coca Cola, blaming its caffeine content for promoting sexual transgressions..." I live for tidbits like this. 27. Coca Cola the global icon. 28. The epilogue provides the impact of water. 29. A cool appendix on ancient drinks. 30. Notes and sources. Negatives: 1. As much fun as the book was to read, the quality wasn't consistent throughout. To illustrate my point, I felt that the chapters on caffeinated drinks (coffee, tea and coca-cola) were superior to the ones pertaining to the alcoholic beverages (beer, wine and spirits). 2. In desperate need of a timeline chart. The author has a tendency of going back and forth in time which may cause the reader to lose their point of reference a timeline chart describing the main milestones of a given beverage would have certainly helped. 3. The lack of charts and diagrams that would have aided the reader in understanding the full impact of the beverages involved. As an example, consumption of a given drink by country... 4. A bit repetitive at times. Sometimes the author has a tendency to overstay his welcome with some tidbits... 5. The history that is here is really simplified. This book is more an entertaining look at the impact and influence the beverages had in the context of the societies in which they were consumed. That being said, don't underestimate what is here. 6. The Kindle version of the book garbled up some words. 7. Links not included for Kindle. In summary, I enjoyed reading "A History of the World in 6 Glasses". It's a fun and at times enlightening read. Cocktails will never be the same, now that I have added to my repertoire thanks in large part to all the fun facts that I picked up from this book. That being said, the danger with a book like this is that it is too general for history buffs and it may not be interesting enough early on to keep the casual reader engaged. So as long as you are not expecting an in-depth history lesson and have a little patience with the drier sections of this book, it will go down smoothly and ultimately lead to a satisfying experience. I recommend it.

`A History of the World in 6 Glasses' by Tom Standage is an addition to a great genre of popular non-fiction on some important, but often ignored subject in the same vein as `Robbing the Bees' by Holley Bishop, Mark Kurlansky's works, `Cod' and `Salt' and `New Yorker' writer, Susan Orlean's `The Orchid Thief'. In fact, like Kurlansky, Master Standage has done at least two other books in this genre to date, `The Victorian Internet' and `The Turk'. This volume presents a part of the history of six of the world's most important beverages, beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola, or, more accurately American cola drinks. Each of the six essays does not cover the whole history of each beverage. It only covers the time and place in which each beverage became popular. There are many dissimilarities between the six, but there are also important similarities. The author points out that all six contain an important psychoactive ingredient. The first three contain alcohol and the second three contain caffeine. What the author notes in each essay is that each beverage was also considered or was actually an aid to health or an improvement to water as a safe beverage in that either the alcohol or the heating in the preparation of the drink, or some chemicals in the source material helped kill any bacteria in the water used to make the beverages. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this book are the connections made by the author between his primary subject and other major social and economic facts of the times in which the beverage became popular. One of the more interesting `sidebars' are the relative fates of wine and coffee in Christian and Muslim cultures, where Christians embraced wine while Muslims, especially Arabs used coffee as a healthy substitute with almost exactly opposite effects from wine. A second interesting sidebar (and, I believe, the subject of his earlier book `The Victorian Internet' is the influence of coffeehouses on 17th and 18th century commerce, art, and politics in London. A third interesting note is the rundown on the wines and other potables of ancient Rome. Filling in what I know about Italian drinking, I can recognize the origins, for example of grappa, made from the dregs of the wine making process. While one may have no argument with the importance of all six beverages, I can't help wondering why the author picked Coca-Cola over hot chocolate. Part of the reason may be that the stories of chocolate and coffee are just too similar to make an interesting contrast. Also, the arrival of coffee, tea, and chocolate all happened at about the same time, so the historical contexts are very similar. I was also surprised that his story on Coca-Cola did not include the time and circumstances surrounding the removal of coca from the drink. Unlike some works on the history or husbandry of culinary subjects, there is virtually nothing in this book on `how to'. There is not one word on the chemistry of fermentation as it relates to beer, wine, or tea. There is virtually no mention of different varieties of grape and just a few statements on grape varieties and grape culture outside of ancient Greece and Rome. There is much more said about the economics of wine making and trade, just as there is much on the economics of rum, slaves and molasses, forming the three sides of the famous New England to Africa to Caribbean trading triangle active up to the Civil War. Mr. Standage has very credible credentials as a writer and editor on technical matters, but I found just a few little questions in his presentation of historical facts. The first statement which tickled my skeptical bone was the reference to the `Fertile Crescent' as the arc from the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the uplands of the Nile in ancient Egypt. In my freshman history of the western world class, the `Fertile Crescent' was described as the arc from the Persian Gulf to the Levant, basically following the course of the Tigris and Euphrates. I quickly checked my Times Atlas of Archeology that confirmed my memory from many years ago. The Nile and the growth of the Egyptian civilizations, while parallel to those that began with Akkad and Sumer were done on independent lines, with the yearly Nile flooding providing a significantly different agricultural environment than the non-flooding rivers of Mesopotamia. A second and more subtle scholarly indiscretion is in the author's treatment of the theory of humors created by the great Greek and Roman medical thinkers such as Hippocrates and Galen. This theory posits four humors, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile and an imbalance between the four being the explanation for various diseases. The author rather intemperately describes this theory, held by thousands of medical practitioners for 2000 years as `utter nonsense', and revealed to be so by 19th century medical research. My first thought is that the practice of bleeding with leaches was explained and justified by this theory, and I have seen recent articles stating that bleeding with leeches retains some good medical effects. This leads me to the belief that there were probably other empirically successful practices that were explained by the humors theory. It was certainly not far fetched, as at least three out of the four fluids can be seen, smelled, tasted, and acted upon within the body. I suggest the author reread his Thomas Kuhn (`The Structure of Scientific Revolutions') to see how this weak and, by today's standards, poorly supported theory served its purpose as the best they had at the time. In spite of these hiccups, this is a great read, even if it strays from its primary subjects now and again. And, it is properly documented with references so that if any statement strikes a chord of interest, you have the means of tracking down the author's sources.

I picked this book up on a whim while traveling. I’m fascinated with history of spirits (particularly whiskey, scotch, bourbon) and thought this book would be a good coverage of other drink histories as an anthology style text. I was very wrong about what this book was, but also not disappointed. I ended up reading the first two main sections (covering beer and wine respectively) in a single sitting. This spanned about 100 pages. I learned so much about the culture of these drinks that I had never known before, such as that beer was one of the earliest currencies in Mesopotamia and Egyptian empires. It actually was a store of value that could be split, combined, stored, and bartered with like you would with cash today. The author also suggests (with appropriate sources) of a plot where beer influenced the creation of the Egyptian pyramids. The story continues leading into the rise of wine, how new empires rose like Greece and eventually Rome largely driven by wine as a beverage and the agricultural requirements to produce it and the financial windfalls from selling it. I was wrong about this book because I expected to learn about the drinks themselves. There’s a little bit of that , but only to the extent of providing details to flesh out the overarching historical story. The focus is on telling a brief history of the world and how new beverages played a role in altering or influencing history and culture along the way. The author largely abandons beverages after they play their role in his historical narrative. For example Beer began in Mesopotamia and then continued to influence Egypt. The story focuses on that, but never mentions advancements or changes in beer from Egyptian times through modern even though it continued to evolve over the next 6,000 years. Similarly wine is vital in modern or even medieval French and Italian cultures, but it is not mentioned past its spotlight of Greek and Roman cultural dominance. Despite tea’s importance since 3,000BC Chinese empires, it is only mentioned as an anecdote here, since the focus is later in the author’s historical narrative with England’s use of it for invading India and its role in the American Revolution. This is very much a selective history of the major world powers from about 4,000BC until Modern Day. Each beverage plays one dominant slice of that narrative in the order of Beer, Wine, Spirits, Coffee, Tea, and then Coca-Cola. Despite this surprise, I did enjoy the book. It’s a fresh take on a non-fiction history book by turning it into a continuous narrative which reads almost like a novel. I think this style will attract and retain more readers than what I originally expected. The author puts significant attention on cultural changes and cultural affects that happened overtime, less effort on specific historical events or the science of the drinks. Of the 6 drinks that get focus in the book, some are more interesting than others. In order of most favorite to least favorite I liked: 1. Coca Cola 2. Beer 3. Wine 4. Spirits 5. Coffee 6. Tea This surprised me. Because I was most interested in learning about spirits, coffee, and tea, and those ranked the lowest on my list. I found those sections less engaging. By contrast, I had ZERO interest in Coca Cola. Yet, that was the most fascinating section to me. There are tons of fun stories in this book and I think everyone will find it interesting. I enjoy the fun spin on a world history crash course and the angle it allowed us to explore unique aspects of culture and society through the lens of influential beverages. Highly recommend this read for everyone!

This book is evidence of the power of a good idea to organize one's thoughts and arguments so as to make them compelling. Other than the air we breathe, which hasn't really changed all that much over the years, there is nothing so universally important as liquid refreshment. Mr. Standage's decision to structure his history of the world upon beverages is brilliant. It is precisely because the drinks discussed remain so familiar to us that the history is so relevant and interesting. Though we understand quite well why alcohol has such a prominent place in history, who would have thought that water itself is only now just emerging as the drink of choice? or that the antibacterial properties of Tea supported the industrial revolution. True, the bias is towards Western history--but as that is my history, I'll take it. We are surrounded with objects that we take for granted and there are any number of great books that spin the historical tale around such objects; however, this work excels because of its brevity--the author manages to cover the topic without the pace of the book ever lagging. The lawyer in me appreciates a finely honed argument; Standage's book is so good that he makes the supremely difficult job of summarizing world history look easy. Many authors of history are unable to prune the many fascinating insights that history presents. And to be sure, I enjoy a nice meandering presentation of interesting tidbits organized around a central theme, but it is always refreshing to find a history that has the same "can't put down" type of feel as a thriller or mystery. I can't think of a more excellent example of a history that is both appropriate for a younger student as well as an overeducated adult. Highest Recommendation.

First of all, it isn't a history of each individual beverage, though there is plenty of that, but a history of the world (as the title indicates) viewed through the lens of what (and why) people were drinking at the time. The drinks and the times they represent are: Beer - probably the oldest known drink, popular in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Likely made/discovered by accident, at some unknown time far in the distant past. One of the main benefits it had on society was that you must boil water to make it. This had the affect of water purification and a decrease in waterborne illness. Interesting notes about how it was used as currency and given as rations to soldiers and slaves. Wine - Our next step in history (Western, at least) is to move north to Greece and then Rome. Wine was viewed as the sophisticated drink and being a wine civilized, educated and wealthy (the more things change...). The sections about the drinking parties are fascinating, with all the ritual and impact on democracy they had. Tangentially related, I grew up in a church that served grape juice for the Lord's Supper. People would argue that we should have wine, as Jesus turned water into wine, etc. but the common retort was well, wine was weaker then. Turns out, this is actually kind of true. It was made the same as today, but watered down. It was considered crass to drink wine straight. Who knew? I assumed they were just pulling something out of their asses, on the other hand, they could have just watered it down, but I digress. Spirits- specifically whisky and rum, my personal favorites, though there is also gin and brandy that play a major role. This is the era of exploration and colonization. Beer & wine were expensive to ship and didn't always keep on the voyage across the Atlantic. Distilled spirits would, and quickly replaced beer as the rations for soldiers. Incidentally, to flavor the harsh drinks, they'd add lime juice, which would help prevent scurvy. He also goes into detail about the triangle of slave trade where slaves would be taken to the islands where they'd be traded for sugar, sugar was then taken to Boston to produce rum, the rum was then traded to Africans for more slaves. And of course, the Whisky Rebellion - the first major attempt to raises taxes in America and one of the first violent threat from within, all due to homemade whisky. Coffee - The age of reason and the enlightenment. This was definitely my favorite chapter. If you are not familiar with the impact that coffee had on the move to the industrial revolution, the book is worth the cost for this chapter alone. Basically, we'd all walk around half drunk all day. People often had beer (weak, but still) for breakfast because it was safer than water. Your precision in operating machinery or your output at a factory is greatly diminished when you've been drinking. Once you are caffeinated, however, then you are alert, focused, and ready to go. Also, the interesting impact on enlightenment and revolutions, as discussion moved from pubs and taverns to coffee houses. Tea - Mostly focused on the British empire, there is still a cool history behind tea in the East that he dives in to. Some of the more interesting things to come out of this history is the impact of people working out of Tea Shops. People would often use the place for meetings and have mail sent there. Because the shops were located near places of work, there would often be a certain industry focus. Proprietors would put shipping information or stock prices on boards. Manuscripts were circulated and critiqued. Lloyd's of London and the London Stock Exchange both started as or at tea shops. Twining's, The Wife's favorite, started almost 400 years ago and may be the oldest official logo still in use. Speaking of women, unlike coffee shops, they were allowed in tea shops which had some interesting impacts, such as the little boxes, sometimes with locks, that teas are still kept in today. Coco-Cola - or Coke here in the South. This chapter follows the rise of America and The American Century; also 'Murica, to a lesser extent. The history is kind of crazy, to think about the number of people running around selling random drinks that are dangerous for you, even though they make wild health benefit claims. Then again, this is still happening, and is completely unregulated,(so, again, the more things change...). Overall fairly interesting, but probably more known by most people (at least Americans) but some great and funny anecdotes. Such as the Russian general who couldn't been seen drinking Coke, even though he loved it, because it was associated with capitalism. So, Coke hooks him up and make clear Coke, puts it in a different bottle to look like vodka and sends it to him. Interesting stuff about Coke embodying capitalist ideals to many communist countries. Overall, definitely worth picking up somewhere. Very well written and interesting book, especially if you are a big history nerd. [...]

The book is a bit presumptuous in stating it is a "History of the World..." or that the six drinks have "defined humankind's past." But that should not stop one from reading it. While more open to a decent view of history regarding capitalism, free markets and property rights, than many (most?) history books, the author still promoted some egregious ideas, if not completely foolish, by giving them equal or more time vs. more sound ideas and facts. The author needs to explore the idea that all these beverages are/were, in effect, private, not "public" or government created or owned. His epilogue could have been far more informed and informative on the subject of the modern situation of water issues, if he had explored the crucial nature of privatization in man's need for a quality beverage that does not poison him/her, or is of reasonable expense or is available to but not wasted by virtually everyone. The definition of imperialism is likewise not one of the strong suits of the author. His never defining it clearly but none-the-less using its corrupted meaning by communist ideology was very unhelpful. He only tacitly used a definition that has twisted the word with pretzel logic to include non-coercive private firms' actions (but NOT include Soviet or other communist foreign aggression) and that is worse than just sad. He is not as bad as many on this score, since he also made fun of the various communist groups' ridiculous attacks on Coca-Cola, much to the detriment of their comrade citizens in the various countries he names. But still, being muddled on this important concept has significant repercussions. There are other words, incidents, trends, etc. that the author could help the reader by not using, or at least defining carefully (`consumerism,' for one), but I just state again, the book has lots to recommend it and I enjoyed and learned a bunch from it overall.

I'd agree for the most part with some of the complaints from people here that may find this book a tad like a great tasting Mcburger but with a sense that your not getting an entire gourmet burger (if that makes any sense). BUT this book is not meant for them. I'd say that it is worth a read to those who are not deep into history but more into summary of its curiosities.*** Its a quicker read (mainly because its well written and interesting), sure with some holes, but the intelligent individual should be able to take Tom Sandage's perspective and take their own view. This book is more of a starting point, and for the non-historian I think a clever way to fill in a mental map of what you know of history. Now... on more of its meat: One thing I greatly appreciated was how Tom was able to connect different stories while still showing you some depth, over long periods of time. He gives 2 chapters to every drink, and even has an appendix telling you a bit more about where you can find the original 6 drinks today. Overall opinion: great vacation book (finished it in a few days) and gives the non-history mughals something to talk about with anyone!

Interesting book

Another great take on how something has changed the history of the world,in this case drinks. An excellently researched history of the origins of six of the most important created drinks in the world that reveals a whole series of really interesting facts about them. It also destroyed a good few myths I'd heard, especially about the origins of Coca-Cola. Each drink is a short history in itself so a book that can be easily dipped into if desired. If you have an enquiring mind and an interest in why and how what you are drinking was first produced, I'd greatly recommend this book as a good read.

Bought a "new" copy of this book. Received a used copy. Paid a premium as it was a gift. I feel scammed.

İyi bir araştırmadan sonra yazılmış bir kitap, fakat kitabın ismi batı medeniyetinin 6 bardakta tarihi olsaydı daha uygun olurdu.

Ho letto questo libro in italiano e l'ho comprato in inglese per farlo leggere anche al mio compagno americano. Assolutamente particolare ed interessantissima una narrazione dell'evoluzione socio-culturale dell'uomo sulla base delle bevande da lui inventate/scoperte. Interessantissimo.