A History Of The World In Six Glasses Analysis

In his novel, A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage interprets how six drinks have marked a trend that has changed the face of the earth. He showed how throughout history beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and Coca-Cola have been a huge motivation to the development of our society. The first drink Standage talked about was beer, a beverage discovered in the Fertile Crescent and was made with boiled water and grains. Beer made civilization possible according to the author, and everyone drank it alike because it was cleaner and safer to ingest than water was. Beer was also used as currency and paid wages, and became something that Mesopotamia could trade with. The history of beer relates to our class for many different reasons, one being that beer caused an increase in early agriculture because of the new need for grain. Another way Standage’s description of beer’s history and social evolution plays into our class and world history in general is the fact that beer created the need for new regional trade patterns, and new urban settlements, just so people could get their hands on the mind clouding relaxer. …show more content…
Though initially associated with social classes because it was exotic and scarce, wine soon embodied Greek culture. Wine also became the Greeks main export and opened vast new seaborne trade, this lead wine into spreading the philosophy, politics, science, and literature of Greece. Wine also spread to the Roman Empire and became associated with Christianity and the Mediterranean. Standage’s recall of wines history relates wine to world history in many ways, them being the fact that wine thrived and lived through long distance trade, the rise and fall of empires, the movement of nomadic peoples, and the spread of