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    A History of the World in 6 Glasses
    A History of the World in 6 Glasses
    A History of the World in 6 Glasses
    Audiobook7 hours

    A History of the World in 6 Glasses

    Written by Tom Standage

    Narrated by Sean Runnette

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.

    A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece, wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe, they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

    For Tom Standage, each drink is a different kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite beverage the same way again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 25, 2011
    ISBN9781452671499
    Author

    Tom Standage

    Tom Standage is Deputy Editor of The Economist. He is the author of several books, including Uncommon Knowledge, Seriously Curious, Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years and The Victorian Internet. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and Wired.

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    Reviews for A History of the World in 6 Glasses

    4.5/5

    228 ratings71 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Enlightening , well researched and written. I will look for more by the author!
    • 4/5
      While not the most engaging of history books, this is generally well written, and some sections do stand out, such as the real story of the birth of Coca Cola and, much more importantly, the shameful (mostly for the British) links between tea and opium and between rum and slavery. Listening will make you thirsty for something, no doubt.
    • 4/5
      I've generally avoided books in the "history of things" category, but this wasn't a bad read. It's well organized: Standage consistently reminds the reader how humanity's needs (for clean water, and later, for pep and energy) shaped its drink preferences. As might be expected from a guy who writes for "The Economist," he also keeps an eye on the implications of these preferences on the global economy. What is perhaps most impressive about the book is the commentary that the author digs up from some very obscure sources, particularly since he's writing about the sort of everyday items that usually get passed over by most commentators. I imagine that it took someone hours of research for someone to glean a few passing sentences about coffee, tea, or beer from some long-forgotten Victorian-era newspaper or diary. "A History of the World in Six Glasses" reads like the product of a truly heroic research process. Also of interest: the close association between the American Army and Coca-Cola, particularly during the Second World War, the economics of the tea trade in the British Empire, and the effect of coffee on anti-royalist sentiment in France. This probably would be dismissed as "light" by most serious historians, but casual readers like myself may have a very good time with it.
    • 3/5
      Tom Standage takes a walk through history sampling six beverages that helped shape our world. Standage takes on the history of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and soda - Coca Cola in particular. This is both a history of the drinks themselves, and also the social conventions and institutions that grew up around them. He relates the impacts they had on broader events from the adoption of agriculture to the present day. A good light read for history buffs by the digital editor of the Economist.
    • 4/5
      Interesting take on how the development, use, and trade in beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea, and cola drinks have impacted human history.Standage casts a wide net here, looking at issues as disparate as health effects on drinkers and international trade policies, social status and the industrial revolution, and medical practice and Madison Avenue. Along the way, he serves up tasty aperitifs about an 870 BCE royal feast that lasted 10 days and provided wine to its 69,000 participants; one possible reason for Islam's prohibition of wine; and how to define "boiling" when referring to water for tea. The final section of the book, which deals specifically with Coca-Cola, is probably the weakest part. While the background history of the development of the drink is fascinating, he doesn't even nod at how the sugar demands for soft drinks have impacted both international politics and public health. He instead takes a look at the Coke/Pepsi competition as Cold War weaponry -- an unexpected turn indeed.When you finish this book, you may not only want to offer a toast to Standage, but you will also understand just what that gesture means. Salút!
    • 4/5
      A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage reminds me of another favorite of mine, Last Call by Daniel Okrent, which is about Prohibition. Both accounts share a not-too-surprising theme: Drinking is as much a part of human history as war and sex. It is so intertwined that, as this book will recount, the commerce of beverages has at times literally caused revolutions.
    • 4/5
      Some bits were more interesting than others, of course, but there's a lot of neat information and this was a fun lens to examine history through.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating and well researched topic. Written with nice flow and enough depth to really understand the influence each of the drinks coveted has had on the modern and ancient world.
    • 5/5
      Wow, what a fascinating book! Brilliantly researched and expertly narrated. I learnt so many fascinating things. I recommend this to everybody who is even just remotely interested in the history of their favourite beverages, and it is a must read for everybody who is interested in history! I'm so glad I picked this up when I did, even though I took my time listening to it.
    • 4/5
      Standage's "History of the World in 6 Glasses", like his "Edible History of Humanity," provides an interesting view into history from a vantage point that is at once novel yet familiar to all of us. It's full of gee-whiz facts about the development of various drinks and how they both influenced and reflected their times. Standage's style is clear and enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Who would have thought that rum was as good as money? Or that grog prevented sailors from getting scurvy? This is a history of world beverages such as tea, coffee, beer, wine, rum, whiskey. What did the colonists drink? Beer for breakfast? The author answers questions such as why was whiskey produced inland, but wine did better on the coasts? The slave trade didn't start because of cotton plantations, but rather the sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean. Think coffeehouses are new? England had coffeehouses in the 17th century. An enjoyable read if you have an interest in history. Without some of these beverages, history may have been different.
    • 5/5
      Very entertaining and interesting stuff. I enjoyed listening to this.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun, quirky look at how six drinks shaped and were shaped by history. Beer, wine, liqueur, coffee, tea, and cola are discussed: how they arose, how they were viewed, and how they affected world events. I especially enjoyed the section that talked about early coffee houses as dens of revolution.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating and easy to read.
    • 5/5
      This was fascinating information and I loved every single page.
    • 4/5
      A History as promised but without any real spark, for me anyway. I have read other not dissimilar analyses - as to how the cultivation of various food and drink stuffs was a strategic element in the expansion of British influence, which made more of an impact.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite history books of all time. Not only is it informative, but Standage does a great job of writing a story.

      A recommended read to all those who love history and love to drink anything from beer to coca-cola.
    • 3/5
      A look at civilization as impacted by beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee and cola. It's easy reading and an interesting concept, but a little light on information, particularly in the early sections, which go back the farthest in history. I'd be intersted in reading Standage's book about the "Victorian internet," which he mentions in this book.
    • 4/5
      interesting premise - well done
    • 4/5
      Fascinating stories and detail. Weirdly the author missed the part about the British sending a Kew Gardens expert dressed as a Chinese to steal tea seeds and learn the processing techniques of the Chinese.
    • 3/5
      This pleasant-enough little ditty takes a look at the origins of six drinks that have prominently played a role in various world civilizations over time. Three contain alcohol: beer, wine, and spirits, while three contain caffeine: coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. The widespread consumption of these drinks generally overlaps with major paradigm shifts in civilizations: shifting to agrarian societies in ancient Middle East, the dominance of the Greek and Roman empires, expansion of global European exploration and trade, the clarity of Enlightenment and Revolutionary thinking, the military dominance of the British Empire, and influence of American consumerism. The book ends with some general thoughts on the current and future importance of water as a drink and scarce resource and suggests that perhaps we have come full circle.The book serves to bring together in a general way the origins of these drinks and some of the main contemporary events through world history. Its main utility in doing so, I feel, is to provide fodder for fun factoids to foist upon friends at cocktail parties. The chapters are short and a bit choppy, but generally end with a tidy tidbit that is easily remembered and brought out on short notice for pub trivia. It’s as if the reader is on tour with an alcoholic and ADD-addled guide: the flow is fairly quick, each chapter is eager to end, and before you know it you’ve traveled two centuries and halfway across the world. I didn’t think this book was as well or thoroughly researched as it could have been. There’s very little (if anything) new brought to light regarding world history or even the drinks and remains on well-trod turf throughout, though it does provide a decent synthesis. The depth is only far enough to provide a few interesting factoids about each drink rather than to pursue detail on any of them in particular. This makes the book a fairly light and easy read, but can leave the reader with many questions. No references, end notes, or foot notes were used in the text itself, and the bibliography is fairly slim. A few statements seemed off to me, many appeared to be unsupported or overstated, and I questioned a few as to how he or anyone could possibly claim to know. I’ll give it three stars for the solidity of its mediocrity, and recommend it to anyone who wants to know just enough to sound mildly impressive while mildly inebriated. Cheers! L’Chaim! Salud!
    • 4/5
      Brief, entertaining, full of fascinating facts. Beverages don't drive history, but they do indicate cultural differences, and culture does drive history.
    • 4/5
      Nice, quick book. Light reading (or listening as the case may be) and informative about the major drinks and how they relate to history. Now I'm dying to try some early history beer but, unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to afford a glass even if it were available. That's too bad.Definitely a fun book to read. Recommend.
    • 3/5
      Quick and easy read on the history of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea & Coca-Cola. WHile neither drink is covered in great detail, he does provide recommended readings for those who want to delve deeper.
    • 5/5
      Excellent cultural history! Extremely interesting! I highly recommend it. Well worth the time.
    • 5/5
      Syncing all my disparate knowledge of world history into one narrative tied by beverages made sense. From beer to wine to spirits to coffee to tea then Coca Cola, the reader learns the effects of the drink on its time period. Although I had to make myself read due to history book style prose, I am so glad to have learned what I did. And to realize that people through the ages like to feel buzzed more or less!
    • 4/5
      AP World History Review: A Description of my Opinion of this BookA History of the World in 6 Glasses is a world history overview separated into the six time "periods" of the world: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. This book gives you the historical facts with easy-to-understand comparisons. It's and especially great overview of world history for those who are taking AP World History or just world history. It would be a great resource to use to study for tests. This book gives the same facts as any textbook does, but it is much more interesting to read, so I feel as though I retained the information better. This book was surprisingly a really good read. Even though I read this book for my history class, I would've enjoyed reading this book in my free time. The author does a great job of stating the facts in an interesting way. While I was reading, I remembered things that I had forgotton that we learned about earlier in the year such as the patron-client relationship. After reading it, I think that I will always retain that information because I never once was bored. The author did a good job at reconfirming things that I was unsure about and he helped me understand world history better. This was a really great and interesting read and I recommend this book to anyone taking a world history class as an overview or to anyone who wants an easy-to-understand description of the world.
    • 4/5
      The author traces how the discovery and diffusion of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coke has affected, and been affected by, history, politics and social change. Well written, engaging and filled with interesting information.
    • 4/5
      A little too detailed at times, but nonetheless pretty readable and an interesting topic
    • 5/5
      Great viewpoint on world history. It's a lot of cool facts to use at dinner parties ect. (If you're interested in that kind of stuff) also great material to understand how history moved along by the power of drinks.