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A History Of The World In Six Glasses Summary

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History can be taught in very unconventional ways. Teaching history highlighting the six main drinks that affected human lives throughout their existence is especially unconventional. In the historic non-fiction book A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage compels the reader by telling how six drinks, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola, affected the course of history. This book was an extremely captivating and fascinating item to read and seems unlike most history books. The author’s main thesis throughout this book seems to be this, “How did six drink affect human history and alter their lives?” Tom Standage dedicates chapters on each individual drink and how they had different effects. He first talks about beer …show more content…

Wine, however, seemed to be the drink of the sophisticated demand. Not easily attainable and expensive, many civilizations did not have the luxury of drinking wine and instead had to stick to beer. For the Greeks and Romans however, wine played an important role in their everyday lives. The consumption of wine led to a tradition of social drinking, which the Greek called symposion and the Romans called convivium. In both gatherings, the people drank wine and had intellectual discussions. To the Greeks and Romans, wine is what defined the sophisticated people from the savages. Spirits, the last of the three alcoholic drinks, resulted from the distillation of wines and beers, was a new popular alcohol that was particularly favored among sailors during exploration and American colonists. When the sugar industry became established, Rum came into existence, created by distilled the waste created by sugar production. By drinking grog, which had lime juice in it, sailors were able to avoid getting scurvy, which reduced sailor deaths. Some slaves traders refused to do business if they did not receive dashee, or alcohol, first. Spirits also played an important role among

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