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.