Jennie's review
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
by Tom Standage
Jennie's review
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Jennie's review
rating:
This book was awesome. It traces the role of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola and their role in world history. Beer developed to make water safe to drink as we shifted from hunting/gathering to grain cultivation, and maybe we even started farming in order to get more grain for more beer? The role of wine in Greek and Roman culture and refinement, spirits as Europeans came to new world, cultivated sugar and made rum as a by-product which was then sold for slaves to run the sugar plantations... and the role of the whiskey rebellion in building the new world. Coffee and coffeehouses came with the age of reason and tea came with Empire (the was a major factor in the Opium Wars which ended with the humiliation of China and England's possession of Hong Kong) and then finally, the rise of Coca-Cola and America as a super-power and globalization.
The epilogue then deals with how we have come full circle and the beverage affecting our current events is, once again, water.
We...more
The epilogue then deals with how we have come full circle and the beverage affecting our current events is, once again, water.
We...more
