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
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage In A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, there was many eras covered. The first era Standage covered was the Stone Age. The drink covered during the stone age was beer. During the stone age nomadic people in the near east started abandoning the lifestyle of hunters and gatherers.
But these historians forget the effects of the war during that period. In this case he raises a very important issue that whenever the history of any events is written the cause and the effects should be studied. Rorabaugh explains in detail that the drinking patterns occurred between 1790 and 1840 is dramatic more than any other time in the American history. The book gives detail analysis how the Americans were drank during this time. Rorabaugh even calls the 19th century America as the nation of drunkards. In my opinion, coming up to the conclusion in the first chapter before providing the details of his evidence why he said the 19th century America drunkard was wrong. It was better if he save his opinion to the last chapter. Because even if he stated the fact that its conclusions are sometimes more suggestive than rigorously proved, his conclusion like opinion misled the readers to think the way he provides them. At least it influences the minds of the
People used wine to show that they are successful and have a higher social status ranking than others, leaving the ones who weren't wealthy and unsuccessful without wine. This began the first socially/economically divided empires. It was used in religious ceremonies, and used medicinally to heal wounds.
1. From which advanced civilization/culture did Europeans get the “science” of how to make spirits?
There are two reoccurring themes throughout this book. The first theme is how the six drinks (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and coca-cola) have impacted the world. The second theme is that each drink has some kind of medicinal purpose. Whether the drink did not work as a medicine or it did.
The Romans drank a lot of wine but not straight or quickly. “Diluting wine and drinking with restraint were ordinary courtesy. The purpose of a dinner party was relaxed
Beer started out as gruel, and as the gruel fermented it turned into beer. Now it was not the first form of alcohol, but it was an important kind of alcohol. Beer was made from cereal crops, which were very abundant, and because it was so abundant it could be made whenever it was needed. They then found an even easier way to make beer by using beer-bread. Beer bread is basically everything needed to make beer in a loaf, making it convenient to store the raw beer materials. Beer started as just a social drink but then blossomed into a “hallmark of civilization”, as seen by the Mesopotamians. Grain was the basis of the national diet, it was
Are there any other beverages that influenced the history of the world or any others that are representative of a particular time period? While Standage mentions seven beverages that represent certain time periods, there are more drinks than the seven that he listed, and any of those other beverages could also have a similar impact to the seven he listed.
A) Unlike alcohol’s intoxicating effect, which made people sleepy and dulled their minds, coffee woke people up and made scientists, clerks, merchants and other businessmen more alert throughout the long workday. Coffeehouses also became places for people to exchange and listen to new ideas and theories in areas such as natural history, chemistry,
In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.
When the Americas were just beginning to form, spirits accelerated their colonialism. At first, sugarcane production was introduced to the Western Indies or Caribbean Islands by Christopher Columbus. The West Indies land was not suitable to grow wine vines or grains for beer, instead Columbus introduced sugar canes to the Indies, creating a major sugar plantation in the West
The author wants to show that beverages had a great impact on history. He wants to tell his
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage is a non-fiction historical novel, whose main purpose is to show the surprisingly pervasive influence of certain drinks on the course of history. Then it takes the reader on a journey through time to show the history of mankind through the lens of beverages.
In the United States alone the drinking patterns throughout history have changed dramatically to reflect the times. Starting out in colonial times the usage of alcohol use was seen as a blessing, and harmless to society. It was acceptable to drink while at work, and during social events, however drinking alone was highly frowned upon. Many early religions believed that alcohol was a gift from God, “man should partake of God’s gift with out wasting or abusing it”#. To enhance and encourage the social
Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks and has played a role in human history for roughly 8,000 years. Beer is the alcoholic beverage of choice in North America and many other parts around the world. It has shaped the culture of human civilization, social interaction and has had a significant contribution to our economy. In order to get a proper perspective on beer you have to look at three main periods; ancient history (the development period), modernization of beer and its effects, and what role beer plays today and where it is going.