A History Of The World In Six Glasses Analysis

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In the book A History of the World in Six Glasses, the author Tom Standage, travels through time along the history of six different beverages. He devotes each section to a specific drink and provides its background and origin, revealing how most all of them were first used for medicinal purposes before they were used recreationally. Along with this, Standage describes significant historic events of civilization, oppression, intellect, imperialism, and globalization, and boldly states that the events were enabled by the birth of one of the six beverages.
Standage first reveals the historic background of beer and then begins with how farming was first developed. He says that beer was really discovered by accident rather than created for a purpose. The farmers would soak their grains in water and they found that this formed a tasty liquid which they then started to add to their soups. Soon after, this liquid became a drink rather than a broth. It was then used as a social drink, a form of currency, and when urban water supplies became contaminated beer was a common replacement for water. Standage points out that beer is the drink of civilization. It created the first use for writing. The earliest forms of writing were found to record the beverage’s ingredients and exchange of bread, grain, and beer. With its growth, it was also the source of agriculture, trade, and health; which goes hand in hand with the meaning of civilization. Wine is hypothesized to have been created in modern day Northern Iran and Armenia during the Neolithic period. The development of wine then spread into Roman and Greek society. It was first a symbol of higher status in the social pyramid because of its lack of abundance, as it represented intelligence and sophistication. Then when wine expanded into the Greek society, it became more available. The Greek not only used wine as something to consume parties and in Church, but it was also something that was used to clean wounds and another drink safer than water. Standage makes the claim that wine was equal to civilization and modification. Because wine had become so available in Greece, the distinction of the brand and age of wine would represent one’s social status and how cultured one was; older wines were preferred to the younger wines. The way that one behaved after drinking wine was another matter of importance, as it was seen as “the mirror of the mind”. Distillation of wine was the first step towards the creation of spirits. This process was first discovered by the Arabs in the fourth millennium BCE but became more prominent during the Age of Exploration; the alcoholic drinks took a more compact and durable form, which was more ideal for shipping. After taking form as a medicine, it was later used more recreationally as it spread into Christian Europe. As the Age of Exploration approached, the Atlantic Islands which were found to have the perfect climate for the production of sugar. Because the creation of sugar required a lot of man power, slaves from Africa were imported to these islands to create the Europeans sugar. Furthermore, as the French, British, and Dutch produced more sugar plantations in the Caribbean this slavery increased. From this point, rum was made from the remains of the sugar. The rum was
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He was able to successfully relate the most prominent events, accomplishments, and values of the world and its history and strongly argue that they would not have been possible without the presents of a certain beverage. He is also especially tactful and persuasive with this choice of writing style. He was able to reach out to all large audience, as we have all have the same common high school knowledge of the general world history. He also almost gets the reader’s mind as to say “The idea that a mere drink could come to embody these values [of democracy, consumerism, and the rejection of many long-standing forms of discrimination] seems absurd. And yet that is what happened during the second half of the twentieth century” (250). Standage admits to the reader that his claims are large and sound crazy at first, but then strongly states that they are mere

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