La’Tia Harris
2nd period
April 20,2014
The History of The World In Six Glasses
World History, itself is a very well complicated topic to discuss. Many other authors have tried to condense many years of history in one book. Subjected to fail, Tom Standage’s attempt was a success. Instead of Standage trying to sum up the history, he simply based the book upon a single topic, in this case beverages.
Using beverages , he took the reader on a journey that shows how this interweaves with history.Standage is a delightful writer, mixing his light hearted style with exceptional historical savvy not just on the topic of drinks, but throughout.
Despite my now positive opinion, I have to avow that when I first picked up A History of the World in 6 Glasses, I did not expect to enjoy it. Though I am a “To die For Fan” of three of the beverages used I simply felt no interest in how the world's history had anything to do with them. However, what I quickly learned is that this book is not a history of 6 drinks, but rather just as the title states, a history of the world, told through the story of 6 drinks. The book also made it clear that second to oxygen, that liquids are necessary to humanity. In my opinion, I do agree with the statement that the availability of water and other drinking sources have "constrained and guided humankind's progress" and "have continued to shape human history". Throughout time drinks have not only quenched our thirst; but served as medicines, currencies, and religious rights. It also served as a symbol of wealth and power,as well as tools to appease the poor.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses is broken down into six sections, one for each drink, the first of which is beer. Man's first civilizations...
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...und itself in, gaining ground through the depression, and then traveling alongside our soldiers into WWII, becoming a global phenomenon.
History of the World in 6 Glasses makes it clear that the history of mankind is a history of our consumption. Whether we are drinking "liquid bread" in Mesopotamia, pondering revolution in a Coffeehouse in Paris, or throwing tea leafs into the ocean in Boston, these drinks have had a profound impact on who we are. As Standage says in the introduction to his book "They survive in our homes today as living reminders of bygone eras, fluid testaments to the forces that shaped the modern world. Revealing its origins, and you may never look at your favorite drink in quite the same way again." I highly recommend this book to anyone thirsty for knowledge about the world around them... or even if they're just thirsty for a good drink.
After the election of 1920 America would return to its isolationism roots and watch as the nations of Europe headed down a path for another world war. As Americans watched Communism rise in Russia they questioned for the first time the patronage of their fellow Americans. Economic and social reforms that started up during the war were set to a status-quo mentality. The actions set forward from the Treaty of Versailles and stance the U.S. Congress took on the League of Nations would eventually lead the world in the worst depression ever and ultimately to a second world war in a mere twenty years.
Alcohol has always been a part of feminine culture, but it took a dramatic shift in the early 20th century. In the book, Domesticating Drink, Catherine Murdock argues that during this period, women transformed how society drank and eradicated the masculine culture that preceded this shift. Murdock draws from a few different sources to prove her argument, such as: etiquette manuals published after the turn of the century and anecdotes from the time period. She provides many interesting and unique perspectives on how drinking culture evolved, but she shows a clear bias towards “wet” culture and also makes very exaggerated claims that turn her argument into something that is nearly impossible to completely prove.
Tom Standage has described the beginnings of six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola and has found many connections, and information helpful in finding out history of the drinks themselves but also their impacts on the growth of civilization as a whole. This book connects everything with society both past and present, it makes learning about history and the way drinks connect fun and interesting. Like learning without even realizing you are. A History of the World in Six Glasses is more than just talking about each beverage as a single but as a whole, it’s connections, uses, relations, and growth they started.
In the book, A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom standage, is about Standage trying to validate that these six drinks (Beer, Wine, Spirits, Tea, Coffee, and Coca-Cola) are what help create a path for America, human history, and the development in history. In the introduction of the book, Standage voices that “Drinks have had a closer connection to the flow of history than is generally acknowledged, and a greater influence on its course. Understanding the ramification of who drank what, and why, and where they got it from…” (5) Standage is an Author and Journalist from England. His book A History of the World in 6 Glasses helps probe the development of history and social branching. In the book civilization and globalization is also a key point because Standage believes that those six drinks are what created a catalyst for each drink to shape the world around us.
When people think of the ancient Roman civilization, notions of trained legions bent on conquering territory and evocative oratory from celebrated politicians often come to mind. And while early Romans will always be credited for both their insatiable military expansion and their enlightened ideas of government, the rapid growth of Rome was not built on these two pillars alone. Indeed, what led to the rise of such a dominating power in a matter of centuries was not simply from the end of a sword, but from that which grew from the earth -- what the people cultivated, traded and consumed. One very significant agricultural need of a growing population that transformed the bounty of the harvest into a cultural ritual and tradition of Roman life was wine. This presentation will demonstrate how the beverage became a locally grown and manufactured staple that played a powerful role in the social, institutional and economic life of the civilization.
Over the years, the United States faced many economic downfalls. There were so many downfalls that a lot of people actually thought that by the end of World War II in 1945, the Great Depression would return. However, it was a completely different story. By the time World War II ended, the United States was booming with success, especially Colorado. Colorado’s growth and economic success had actually passed up the nation as a whole. Colorado’s success would then last for forty years.
Frances Willard’s top priority through her literary piece was to show the negative effects and degradation of the common man due to excessive use of alcohol. Frances Willard’s article on the temperance movement portrays the women’s part in pacifying man’s grasp on alcoholic beverages and the steps they had to take to make it h...
It is not common that when one thinks of the history of the world that the thought of beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, or even Coca-Cola comes to mind. Matter of fact, the thought of a beverage having an impact in history may be the very last thing that comes to mind. But according to Tom Standage in his book A History of the World in 6 Glasses, he argues that these six drinks have had an all-round influence in the history of the world. It is hard to imagine that the drinks we know of today, were the foundation and building blocks of the history that has been engraved in us. As to which beverage has had a greater impact in history, it is a matter of the extent to which each particular drink has contributed to influencing, not just people, but the course of history. Not diminishing the impact of the other beverages, but coffee has had a greater impact in history over tea and the other drinks.
Water has been an important part of human history, but how exactly did it influence certain characteristics of human development? In Merry Weisner’s book Discovering Global Past: A Look at the Evidence, she provides the sources to prove how the need for a steady supply of water affected much of the progress in human society and raises the question, “How did the need for a steady supply of water affect the technological, economic, political, and legal developments of ancient societies?” (35). The answer is that water affected each one of these developments immensely.
In society there are many different types of power. Socially someone could be more influential than another person, physically someone could have the ability to lift more weight than another, politically some people’s beliefs and ideas are taken more seriously than others. Humans crave to possess some sort of power over something or someone. In the book A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, he shows that the sources of power throughout history can be explained by whoever controlled the influx of certain drinks. The Arabs originally controlled the source of coffee and as the demand grew the pressure to keep the plant to themselves became more imperative. Rum, which is made from leftover molasses, was more easily obtained. The
In the 1600's and 1700's, the American colonists drank large quantities of beer, rum, wine, and hard cider. These alcoholic beverages were often safer to drink than impure water or unpasteurized milk and also less expensive than coffee or tea. By the 1820's, people in the United States were drinking, on the average, the equivalent of 7 gallons of pure alcohol per person each year (“drinkingprohibition” 1). As early as the seventeenth century, America was showing interest towards prohibition. Some people, including physicians and ministers, became concerned about the extent of alcohol use (“There was one...” 1). They believed that drinking alcohol damaged people's health and moral behavior, and promoted poverty. People concerned about alcohol use u...
William Rorabaugh does a good job of shining a light on a part of our history that many people are completely unaware of. His choice to write the book from the social history view provides a refreshing view of the times compared to the usual historical perspective. Rorabaugh uses many anecdotes to immerse his reader in first hand accounts during the very period he is writing about. Where he ultimately falls short is in his statistics. He admits that finding a single source that can provide accurate data from the early 1800’s is nearly impossible and proceeds to make his best effort at providing the most accurate statistics he can accumulate. How much Americans drank in the early 1800’s is hard to quantify, but one thing is for certain; they definitely drank their fair
The Web. The Web. 02 May, 2016. http://drinkingage.procon.org/.
Warsh, Cheryl Krasnick. ""John Barleycorn Must Die": An Introduction to the Social History of Alcohol ." In Drink in Canada: Historical Essays , by Cheryl Karsnick Warsh, 3-26. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. (SUNY Stony Brook HV 5306.D75 1993)
Generally speaking, other alcoholic beverages can be viewed as being a substitute for wine. However, specific substitution of wine in the New World is low because most individuals prefer to purchase wine from a retail facility instead of producing their own. Where as in the Old World the option of producing wine...