History Of The World In 6 Glasses Summary

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3 Para summary: The novel A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage explains important events in history based on and/or affected by the 6 most influential beverages that shaped the path of history by highly influencing cultures and politics. From beer to coca cola, the history of the world is covered from Mesopotamia to today.
Approximately 12,000 years ago, the hunter gatherers began to settle after discovering the ability to store cereal grains and farm (among other reasons), they began to unearth the properties of grains when soaked in water. This liquid would be added to stews, but eventually was consumed by itself. This liquid is beer, and was the first alcoholic drink created. Soon wine became brought to attention, and
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Specifically social and economic classes. This theme is most commonly addressed by the author because although the beverages mentioned in the novel weren 't a necessity, it was a luxury the wealthy were able to afford when they first began to rise to popularity. Wine became a direct link to the wealth and class of people because even after becoming something everyone could afford, “what mattered no longer whether or not you drank wine, but what kind it was. (55)”. During this time another way wine defined your class was how many vineyards you owned, “the property-owning classes in Athens were categorized according to their vineyard holdings: The lowest class has less than seven acres, and the next three classes up owned around ten, fifteen, and twenty-five acres. (54)”. The author shows the readers how things like a simple drink can highly influence an entire empire. The invention of wine greatly helped shape the social status of everyone from this time period, and sometimes even today. (add one more example about class/gender roles/family/race) Beverages mentioned in the book had a large impact on trade, which leads to theme 4, creation, expansion, and interaction of social systems. As agricultural activities began to expand, Europeans went to the African slavers who supplied them in exchange for other products which included bowls, …show more content…
(1). Because of this wine was a symbol of status. But as new rulers came into reign wine came to popularity. First the author infers that wine was available in more areas because its production and trade rate increased due to the popularization of vineyards. Also, when larger countries were created there were “fewer borders to cross, the fewer taxes and tolls there were to pay, and the cheaper it was to transport wine over a long distance. (49)”. Using the ideas above, the author came to the conclusion that the popularization of wine was because of people growing more vineyards, and the creation of larger countries. The writer finally infers that by the Ashurnasirpal reign, wine had become very widespread because it was no longer a desired item to offer for tribute.

APWH historical thinking skill: 1 historical agruement from evidence
Explain: agrues that coffeehouses were the internet of the day, and that they were the main way to spread new ideas and information. Coffeehouses were also referenced to be the center of political debates (142).
Quote/paraphrase: “‘the King’s friends had then used more liberty of speech in these places than they durst to do in any other. (144)’”. He states after that the the new king would not have gotten elected if it weren’t for the coffeehouse debates, implying how ifluential they were in the society during this time period. (add a little more here, combine with other thinking skill)

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