A History Of The World In 6 Glasses

Weinstein 1

Orion Weinstein-Atman

Dr. Taylor

History 3008, Section 1

22 March 2014

Book Review: A History of the World in 6 Glasses

Lessons about world history have been presented in a variety of ways throughout my education. Some of the history lessons have been more interesting, for example my sixth grade class had an ancient Egyptian day and “silk road” bazaar event. In other grades, history was taught through standard textbooks which were often much drier. Tom Standage, however, in his A History of the World in 6 Glasses shares a more engaging and definitely not dry way to look at world history; through what people were drinking during key historical times. His thesis is that “Six beverages in particular – beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola – chart the flow of world history” (p.2). Standage goes on to say that although three contain alcohol and three contain caffeine, “what they have in common is that each one was the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.” (p. 2)

A History of the World in 6 Glasses is divided into separate sections based on the different beverage representing a key historical era. Starting about 10,000 years ago, beverages began to have other purposes than just to quench thirst. Beverages were used medicine, currency and for religious purposes. The first historical beverage presented by Standage is beer. With beer he shows how processing grains led to the development of agriculture, as well as migrations, and the creation of civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The accidental fermentation of grains into beer was “magical” creating a beverage which induced a state of altered consciousness. It was seen as a gift from the gods and used as a religious offering to thank...

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...s out how strange it is that currently in countries which have good water supplies, people would rather buy and drink bottled water even though bottled water has no real advantages and is far more expensive than tap water. However, bottled water is not the problem. The access to clean drinking water is the real problem and one fifth of the world's population does not have safe drinking water. There could be water wars in various areas of the world which might shape our history, as the other six drinks have. Standage's thousands of years of drinking history is not entirely complete because he focuses mainly on Europe and America, leaving out much of the history of South America and Africa. However, he does prove his point, that what we drink is part of world history. The “6 Glasses” reflect the evolution of our world and changed world history in significant ways.