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THIS MONTHS READING:

A History of the World


in Six Glasses
by Tom Standage
REVIEWED BY:
Alison Schroeder,
Manager of Country Hills
Community Library
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WHAT WERE READING
W
hoknewtheinfluencebeer, wine, spirits, coffee,
tea and cola have had on world history and
economies? In A History of the World in Six Glasses,
Tom Standage explains the pivotal effect each of
these drinks has had on six eras in world history. The
book starts by recounting the accidental production
of beer when Mesopotamian hunter-gatherers began
purposeful cultivation and storage of grains.
The storage conditions of grains was not ideal, and
water-soaked barley combined with natural airborne
yeasts produced a sweet intoxicating liquid beer!
Beer, along with bread, became currency in the
ancient world.
The next section explains how Greeks began
commercial production of wine and howthe manner
of wine consumption determined social status.
Barbarians drank wine neat, while the sophisticated
elite of Greece drank wine diluted with water.
Spirits were developed during the first millennium
AD as scientists distilled liquids to isolate and purify
its constituents. When wine was distilled, it produced
a more potent alcoholic beverage that was easily
transported to the NewWorld, where it was used as
a currency in trade.
Standage also delves into the importance of coffee
houses as intellectual meeting places in the
Enlightenment Era, the development of the Brits love
affair with tea, and the evolution of coca- and kola-
steeped wine, from a pharmaceutical wonder cure
to the popular beverage it is today.
Of course, the history that TomStandage retells is
missing many significant dates, names and places.
But it is a fascinating viewof the role these six drinks
have had in shaping history. Standage has a unique
ability to connect seemingly mundane events in an
engaging manner that is not just a collection of trivial
facts, but a quick overviewof societys development
frompre-history to present day.
Other books by Standage include The Victorian
Internet, An Edible History of Humanity, The Neptune
File, and Writing on the Wall.
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