If you have never enjoyed reading history, this book may change that. But be forewarned, as you read this book, you may develop a thirst for the beverages that are being discussed.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Stone-Age Brew
Chapter 2: Civilized Beer
Chapter 3: The Delight of Wine
Chapter 4: The Imperial Vine
Chapter 5: High Spirits, High Seas
Chapter 6: The Drinks That Built America
Chapter 7: The Great Soberer
Chapter 8: The Coffeehouse Internet
Chapter 9: Empires of Tea
Chapter 10: Tea Power
Chapter 11: From Soda to Cola
Chapter 12: Globalization in a Bottle
Epilogue: Back to the Source
Acknowledgements
Appendix

In A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage traces world history using six beverages; beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. The Epilogue adds one more to the list: Water. With each drink, Standage explains why and how it came to be, what was happening regionally or globally, and how the drink influenced civilization. Wine is a good example. Early in its development, it was only available in very specific regions. As such, key wine making areas were favorites of kings and sometimes the focus of wars or territory disputes. Finally, to see the vine make its way around the known world is a fascinating trip. Another fact shared by most of the beverages; in the days of cholera and other water born illnesses, drinking beer, wine, coffee, or tea were a good way to remain alive.

You have to commend Standage for this book: it is one of the most unique views of world history. Whether your favorite drink is beer, wine, rum, or water, you are presented with the history of the drink and an excellent tour of the past. In addition, you should go away with an appreciation for all of the beverages as well as an excellent understanding of how these drinks influenced world politics (some of which are still with us). Because Standage uses familiar beverages, you can't help but be drawn into the history of the world. Some chapters are more interesting than others, primarily because your favorite drink isn't central to the chapter. But regardless, you learn something about a particular time in history, using a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, or shot of whiskey. Another benefit of this book - you will have plenty of anecdotes to tell your friends over a beer, a cup of coffee, or a Coke. As an example, look at whiskey. The original phrase for distilled spirits was aqua vitae, or "water of life." The Gaelic for aqua vitae is uisge beatha, which is the origin of the word whiskey. You may think that you are simply having a drink, but you are really consuming history.

This is a fun, informative book and highly recommended.

I had to read this book over the summer for my world history AP class. Usually any summer book I have to read for school I usually dislike. So when I got this book, I was kinda unsure about whether I would enjoy it, considering it was going to be about history. However, to my surprise it wasn't bad at all and it was interesting and way better than reading history out of a text book. The only downfall is that after I read it, I had to write an essay about for it for school.

6 drinks that shaped the course of humankind; a much easier idea to embrace and enjoy than the strong wills or fierce egos of the historical figures traditionally taught in schools.
Lots of entertainment and facts in a little book. Makes a great gift too as its premise surprises and delights its adult recipients.

First I must acknowledge the manifest superiority of Wendy Smith's witty praise from the Los Angeles Times. It makes what follows only a tribute to her accuracy and wit. The book's wealth of details of the science of beverages, of historical facts and of appropriate quotes culled from every culture and all periods of history makes it a literate person's delight - like "a cool glass of beer on a hot day," like a bottle of wine shared with friends. It supports a saying I once found on a tee shirt: "God must have intended people to be happy, that's why He(She) gave them books." If memory serves me correctly it was Ms. Manners who informed her readers that it was neither necessary nor even proper to bring wine to a dinner party, but since the practice is so much a part of the culture of the Midwest I have come to my own compromise - I bring as a house gift a copy of "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" to be enjoyed at their leisure with the beverage of
their choice.

The book was written in a style that was easy to read without being condescending or stooping to the lowest common denominator. It provided sound bits of history loosely connected to six kinds of beverages. Did these beverages definitively effect the events discussed here, no! Was there some connection; sure along with a number of other variables. Still all in all it was an interesting read and I learned something which is always a positive experience.

My 15 year old son had to read this book for a class at school, and I decided to take a look at it. I was happily surprised at how the author teaches a history lesson in such an interesting manner. I like it so much I even suggested it to my book club to read. We all enjoyed it!

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage provides a new method of viewing the history of the world by associating each era with a different beverage. Mr. Standage gives very insightful accounts of world events, and brings up many new points through pairing different "glasses" with each time period. From this, the reader is able to take away a new perspective of world history and why certain events took place in the way they did. Changes and continuities are easily perceived within the book as society moves from one drink to another. As more technological advances are achieved, the drinks and their production become much more sophisticated. In the earliest periods, Standage identifies beer as the beverage of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, while wine is of ancient Greece and Rome. Both beer and wine seem to have been discovered almost by accident, and neither was necessarily created. Simple fermentation methods were used to cultivate each, and simple distillation equipment dates back to the colonial period when spirits were popular. As the Age of Reason opened, coffee became the popular drink for its lack of alcohol, and Chinese made tea was widely imported within the British Empire. Both preparation methods became more complicated, as few were able to reproduce China's methods of preparing tealeaves. Finally, the production of Coca-Cola involved a complex series of ingredients that were mixed together and served from the newly designed soda fountain. The different drinks that society favored over time certainly showed technological advancements and changes that came along, but they also show many continuities. When each drink was first introduced, only the wealthy were able to drink it. The cost of importing many of the beverages was too much for the peasants of distant lands. But as time continued, the price on each beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola was greatly lowered so that anyone was able to afford them. Furthermore, many of the drinks were forced to go up against the church. Some religions felt that it was inappropriate to consume alcohol, and they banned these types of beverages from churchgoers. Drinks containing caffeine were considered a drug in some places. Although each drink became successful in the end, each struggled to find its place within society.
I would recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses to anyone seeking a new perspective on the events of history. It brings up many new points, as demonstrated above, as well as consistently shows changes and continuities throughout time. The book opened up a new perspective on events of the world, many of which can be explained by the existence of certain beverages. For example, many great intellectual contributions came from the time when coffee was vastly renowned. This can be attributed to the stimulating effects of coffee, especially in comparison to the intoxicating alcohols which were previously popular, as well as the new discussions that were able to take place amongst the intellects who visited the numerous coffeehouses. Certain beverages can also explain a decline in disease, as they were less easily afflicted than water. Additionally, many beverages were required to be boiled, which would kill certain life forms that may be thriving within the supply. All in all, I was very impressed that such a simple thing as a beverage could impact society in such an enormous way, and thought Standage did an exceptional job at conveying his points. I would highly recommend this book because of its ability to institute new ideas amongst readers, no matter what amount of world history knowledge they may possess.

This is a good read and informative. The role of psychoactive substances in history is a new field, with much more in it to discuss. I wrote a similar book, Molds, Epidemics, and History, published in 1989, and it is still in print. I am writing a book about the role o psychoactive substances in the early history of religion in the Middle East. The author could probably write a second book that includes opium, hashish, and mushrooms.

The book's title is tongue in cheek. It is not a history of the world. It is an extremely well written crisp and gifted book that shows how drink has both represented and helped shape its time. Half the book is about alcohol, and it is no surprise that man discovered it affects thousands of years ago. The chapter on beer made me crave a German lager, while the wine section called out for a good Merlot.

The author uses an enjoyable and personal writing style that makes for an enjoyable read. It is full of facts and analysis, but does not get weighed down by overstating information or trying to be too high-minded. The book proves that history can be both intellectual and enjoyable at the same time.

In this book, Tom Standage offers an account of the historical significance of six beverages - beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. Through them he provides a brisk sketch of world history, from the establishment of settled civilization in ancient Mesopotamia to the globalized world in which we live today. The perspective provided by his approach is interesting, and generally he manages to avoid the kind of overstated claims that are a common trap of works like this.

Yet as I read the book, I found myself wanting more. Standage's overviews are rather cursory - perhaps excessively so - and he glosses over some information that does not fit into the structure he lays out for the reader (gin is conspicuously absent, for example, despite its importance in the 18th century). The result is to make the book an intellectual appetizer (albeit a tasty one) rather than a meal, and after having their appetites whetted some readers will find themselves resorting to the bibliography he provides at the end of the text to learn more. As an introduction, though, Standage's book is a good starting point as an enjoyable read full of interesting details.

Author Standage needs to take a bow. He has succintly and in quite entertaining fashion woven a tapestry that links popular beverages with society, culture, politics and economics. I cringe whenever I see history titles that say "Changed" this or that, but this book makes a convincing argument that humans have danced to the distiller's/brewers/vintner's tune and in this repect, alcohol and caffeine have indeed "changed" the globe. Today, while the precursors to the carbonated colas are still very much around and doing a brisk business, thank you very much (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea), the looming "next" most popular beverage threatens to have long term and potentially catastrophic consequences - good ol' H two O. Of course, Standage points out that to a large measure the popularity of the earliest fermented brews owed a lot to unsanitary water, but now that population and urbantization pressures are combining with climatic and political changes, the availability of fresh water will be a major factor in geopolitics. Fascinatingly, he mentions how Syria's efforts to control the headwaters of the Jordan in 1964 had more than a little to do with Israel's 1967 preemptive strike against its hostile neighbors.
The author's eye for the telling anecdote and his mastery of the syncretic effects of popular culture and imperialism reveal how to a large extent it is the small everyday things that can snowball into much greater things, such as England's obsession with Chinese tea imports, its corresponding revenue imbalance with the opium-plagued Chinese, and the resulting conspiracy to foist smuggled opium onto a helpless nation. The effects of that evil (which the Brits have never really owned up to) are still being felt today, especially by New World Brits (aka Americans) who are seduced by cheap Chinese goods. Talk about what comes around goes around.
This is a quick, edifying read that will intrigue and fascinate on every page. Mr. Standage must diversify his talents onto other fields posthaste.

This is a well written, easy to read book about the history of drinks and what difference they made to the world. Mr. Standage takes on beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and... Coca Cola! I thorougly enjoyed it.

I hate that amazon only has five rating choices. This was 4.5 stars. Highly recommended if you read many books, and are looking for a quick, easy read in between more substantive ones.

This is a great read. Informative & fun...how often do you find that combination?

A really interesting take on world history thru the development and use of six drinks, with a generous sprinkling of unknown facts. A thorough pleasure.

A fascinating review of history through the development of beverages. Very entertaining! Highly recommend.

Tom Standage takes a unique approach in surveying the history of the development of world civilizations by chronicling the parallel growth of beverages starting with beer and culminating with Coca-Cola. While the historical parallels are clearly the focus in this book, for me, the portions chronicling the origins behind each of the six beverages are the most engrossing of all. Strangely enough, the most interesting portion of the book is the epilogue where Standage brings light to a 7th beverage that will shape the course of future civilization to come - Water.

Since I purchased this book for a birthday gift- I did not read it. I do know it was received with much enthusiasm and had been highly recommended to me. Susan

Since I purchased this book for a birthday gift- I did not read it. I do know it was received with much enthusiasm and had been highly recommended to me. Susan

A definitive read for any food enthuasist. This book should form the core of the would-be reformed history classes for our children that will not teach what the victors made their writers write, but how humanity evolved REALLY with beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and soda.

Clever treatment -- compelling reading--even the most casual student of history will devour this book!! Buy it, you'll love it!

Fascinating view of cultural connections and differences, and the role played by beverages both within and between cultures and nations. A stimulating, well-written and easy to read work. If my children were still school-aged I would have them read it to open their eyes to the layers in history. Instead, I will give it as birthday presents because I'm sure it will be a joy for them to read.

The book covers six drinks and their place in history. The drinks are beer, wine, spirits(rum, whiskey, grog, etc), coffee, tea and Coca-Cola. According to the author, each drink was representative of its time. For example tea covers the expanse of the British empire and spirits (rum) covers American and British slavery. Therefore, the important place each drink had in the advance of civilization for good or ill is retold. The most interesting stories concerns the spread of drinking coffee and the coffee houses. The book is well written and parts of it are fascinating. I took off a star because it was too pop culture, but overall Standage picked an interesting veiwpoint into the development of civilization. The book is great read for vacation trips. His style is very readable.

I was intrigued with the description of this book and it lived up to my expectations. I found the cultural history it provided fascinating. The author did a great job with the subject!

The book covers how six drinks and their place in history. The drinks are beer, wine, spirits(rum, whiskey, grog, etc), coffee, tea and Coca-Cola. Each drink was representative of its time. The important place each drink had in the advance of civilization is retold. The book is well written and parts of it are fascinating. I took off a star because it was too pop culture, but overall Standage picked an interesting veiwpoint into the development of civilization. The book is great read for vacation trips and he relates fun stories.

If you are looking to learn without being inundated with useless facts or boring characters, this book is for you. It's basically the history of beer, wine, coffee, tea, soda, and hard alcohol.

The author describes the origins of each drink, and their history and effects on society. While sometimes he delves into some boring realms like someone's personal history, this book still flows well. It's one of those books that flows so smoothly, you won't realize that it has ended.

This is the perfect light read in which you learn something and enjoy yourself. I would recommend it as a great change of pace to most books on the market.

This book is evidence of the power of a good idea to organize one's thoughts and arguments so as to make them compelling. Other than the air we breathe, which hasn't really changed all that much over the years, there is nothing so universally important as liquid refreshment. Mr. Standage's decision to structure his history of the world upon beverages is brilliant. It is precisely because the drinks discussed remain so familiar to us that the history is so relevant and interesting. Though we understand quite well why alcohol has such a prominent place in history, who would have thought that water itself is only now just emerging as the drink of choice? or that the antibacterial properties of Tea supported the industrial revolution. True, the bias is towards Western history--but as that is my history, I'll take it.

We are surrounded with objects that we take for granted and there are any number of great books that spin the historical tale around such objects; however, this work excels because of its brevity--the author manages to cover the topic without the pace of the book ever lagging. The lawyer in me appreciates a finely honed argument; Standage's book is so good that he makes the supremely difficult job of summarizing world history look easy.

Many authors of history are unable to prune the many fascinating insights that history presents. And to be sure, I enjoy a nice meandering presentation of interesting tidbits organized around a central theme, but it is always refreshing to find a history that has the same "can't put down" type of feel as a thriller or mystery. I can't think of a more excellent example of a history that is both appropriate for a younger student as well as an overeducated adult. Highest Recommendation.

I can't say enough good things about this book. A great subject and a fine read. I found it fascinating and finished it in just three days. An accessible book for readers who don't normally pick up non-fiction books, yet detailed enough for history fans. It would've been nice to have at least a mention of hard apple cider, which was important in early American history because the fermentation process kills bacteria, making it safer to drink than well water at the time. But Standage makes a compelling case as to the importance of each of the six drinks he profiles.

Standage decided to write the history of the civilized world not by tracing the histories of kings, popes, wars, and explorers, but with beer, wine, coffee, tea, spirits, and soda. The result is such an incredibly interesting and entertaining read, that one wonders if historians have been concentrating on the wrong subjects all along.
From Standage we learn that the earliest of these beverages were critical to the establishment of organized human societies. They served as important water purification systems, and also as the earliest forms of hard currrency.
We also learn why Greeks added water to their wine, why England became a tea drinking society, and while France embraced coffee. The discussion of Coca-Cola and its role in the globalization age is one of the best I've read on the subject of the ever more intergrated global economy.
Standage comes full circle with an Epilogue on plain old water, and the potential in certain regions of the globe for future political and military conflicts over the control of this limited and valuable resource.

Tom Standage manages to entertain as well as educate with his well researched book. It is compelling reading.

This very readable and interesting book is a bit mistitled. Rather than the History of the World in 6 Glasses, Mr. Standage gives us the History of the West in 6 Glasses (probably not a real marketable title). He spends little time discussing China and no time discussing anywhere but the western world. There is nothing about original cultures in S. America or Africa, for instance. This is a criticism of the title, however, not the content of the book.

That criticism aside, this is a wonderfully interesting book that gives insight not only into the beverages, but more importantly, their effect on history. At times, his conclusions will make a reader shake his head in wonderment, but his theories are very well reasoned and defensible.

His accounts of the more modern drinks - Coke, coffee and tea, are a bit more detailed than the others, but his account of the effect on spirits, especially rum, on the development of the world was especially intriguing.

Mr. Standage is a fine writer who makes history extremely readable (his "Turk" is tremendous). Not only does he trace these drinks and their effects on the world, he nicely brings the story full-circle from beverages drunk to avoid water to our new obsession with bottled water and the tensions in the modern world brought on by water in general.

This book is highly recommended. It is both informative and enjoyable reading.

This is about six beverages that changed world history. They are: beer, wine, distilled liquor, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola.

Author Tom Standage begins by taking us back to the dawn of the agricultural age with beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and in pre-Columbian Europe. Beer was the drink of choice for just about everybody because there was little else to drink (no coffee, no tea, and only the occasional grape or fruit wine or mead made from honey). And beer was actually better for you than water because the alcohol in beer killed bacteria and other parasites. This is a theme that comes up again and again in the book: all these beverages were better than water because they were safer to drink than water. Beer was also a major source of calories for those who drank it. Interesting enough the Egyptians drank their beer with straws and in the Middle Ages in Europe almost everybody had beer and/or beer soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course most of the beer had about half the alcohol that is typically in beer today--probably about three percent versus today's six percent.

Next Standage returns us to the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome as we learn about wine. Both the Greeks and the Romans drank their wine mixed with water. That was the only civilized way. Only barbarians and other uncouth people drank wine straight. The Greeks sometimes flavored their wines with (gulp!) seawater. The Romans also adulterated their wines with all sorts of herbs, honey and even pitch (as a preservative). It's clear that their wines weren't all that good, nothing like the quality we have today, except perhaps for a few drunk only by emperors and others at the pinnacle of power.

Chapters 5 and 6 are about distilled liquor, especially rum and whiskey. Standage recalls the slave/sugar/rum trade and why it developed and how it worked. Interesting is the fact that the colonists in America at first preferred rum since it was relatively cheap, was concentrated and did not spoil easily. Standage even calls rum the drink of the American revolution. (p. 121) Then the colonists switched to whiskey after they began growing grains inland, and to avoid the cost of taxed molasses (from which rum was made). Standage doesn't mention it, but in many places in America at one point in our history hard cider made from apples was the only easily gotten alcoholic drink. The colonists drank little beer because it was hard to grow the grain from which beer is made near coastal settlements, and beer did not easily survive long ocean voyages.

Coffee comes next. That and the Age of Reason. Standage, along with other authorities that I have read credit coffee with sobering up Europe and ushering in rapid social, scientific, technological, and social change. Instead of beer for breakfast, now it was off to the coffeehouse and talk of trade, science and revolution. Coffee was safer than water because the water was boiled to make the coffee.

The story of tea is in chapters 9 and 10. Standage recalls the mighty East India Company, more powerful than almost any government on earth at one time. And he recalls how the British traded opium to the Chinese for silver with which to buy tea. And then there was that little party in the Boston harbor... It is notable that in every instance governments quickly began taxing the popular beverages. Incidentally, tea was (and is) safer than water not only because the water is typically boiled (although not always) but because tea contains tannins which are anti-bacterial.

The last two chapters are devoted to Coca-Cola (and to much less extent, Pepsi-Cola and other sodas). Standage hails Coca-Cola as the symbol of America's dominance in the 20th century. He chronicles the story of its invention and how it grew out of the patent medicine business and how it eventually went worldwide. By the way, Coca-Cola is only as safe as the water from which it is made.

There is an Epilogue entitled "Back to the Source" on the growing consumption of bottled water, and an interesting Appendix, "In Search of Ancient Drinks" in which Standage reports on attempts to recreate hop-less beers and ancient wines.

Bottom line: very readable and full of interesting detail. One of the best books of its type that I have read.

Thank you

An entertaining and easily-read book that casually traces the impact of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coke on human history. There are a few new tidbits of information and interesting factoids, but nothing particularly earth-shattering here. If you're looking for intriguing details on the order of "Salt: A world history" or "Potato: How the humble spud changed the world" you'll be disappointed. That said, this is a good starting point for anyone interested in learning how consumables can impact history. An Amazon reviewer referred to one of the author's other books as a 'McBook' which is probably equally accurate here. But there's certainly room in the world for the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries. It may not be tremendously nutritious or flavourful, but it's tasty enough.

For any who have read much on world history, it is obvious that certain natural resources are necessary for a civilization to prosper. The most pivotal to human life would be air, but that was hardly in scarce supply anywhere on the globe. On the other hand, water is much more unevenly distributed and has played a huge part in how, where and when certain civilizations have developed. In Tom Standage's brief and entertaining book, we see that other drinkable liquids have also played a critical part in history.

He focuses on six drinks in particular (hence the "six glasses" of the title): beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola. As he observes early on, these six can be split evenly into two categories, the first three being alcoholic beverages and the latter three being caffienated drinks. In sections for each drink, we get a history of how the drink developed and how it had an impact on history. We see how beer was the first "working-class" drink, how wine played a role in developing Greek and Roman civilization (as well as its differing roles in Christianity and Islam) and how spirits provided a more economical way of transporting goods (being much more compact than its root materials). Coffee from the start was associated with coffee houses, social zones where important political and scientific ideas were discussed. Tea helped expand the British empire and Coca-Cola parallels the development of the global economy, to the point where its trademark is one of the most recognized symbols worldwide.

For most of human history, water was essential but unsafe for drinking purposes. These six drinks provided safer alternatives. Now, as discussed in the epilog, water is making a comeback, exposing a grand irony. In areas where tap water is safe, people buy bottled water that is no purer but is more expensive by volume than gasoline. Standage really only neglects two major classes of drink: milk (which probably had its biggest impact in prehistory by encouraging the keeping of livestock) and juice (although wine is kind of related).

There are little flaws in the book, such as Standage's error in referring to a year 0 C.E., which does not really exist (the year before 1 C.E. actually being 1 B.C.E.). Overall, however, this is a solid four star effort and well-worth reading. You may never think of that drink in your hand the same way.

Review of Tom Standage:

This book describes the progress of six types of drinks and the affects it has had on the on our civilization. The book is an easy read, has references to history that makes it valuable to understanding the affect.
The author starts the journey with beer, describes it as a beverage that united civilizations, as you had to drink the first beer with a straw due to the floating hops and other ingredients. The toasting to someone's health with beer associated beer with friendly and unpretentious intentions, still to our time.
The journey continues with Wine, which was very powerful within the Greeks. As Socrates used to measure a man's maturity level and invoke conversation among other philosophers. The author explained that Wine initially started as a drink for the wealthy due to the cost of import; individuals' wealth were measured by the amount\size of vineyards they owned. As wine making became easier, it evolved to a more common but more complex drink; wine was categorized with age and region. Wine was imported around the World and displaced beer to become a more sophisticated and civilized drink, still do this day.
The third drink is "spirits", according to the author, the Arabs developed through distillation in Cordoba, Spain. Initially used for medicinal reasons, this distilled wine was created and called spirit; was very popular in the northern regions since wine was harder to harvest and distilling beer was easier. The creation of slavery and use of sugar canes introduced Brandy and Rum. The progression into the Americas started and new spirits were created.
The fourth was a tea which was found in China and distributed throughout the empire's land and it is to this date a drink that holds it ground within many cultures and nations.
The fifth was coffee which is the second of the caffeinated drinks, this was a found by the Persians and stated that thought was provoked when it was consumed.
The final drink was made from cola, today known as carbonated drinks. Nothing to really write about in a review but definitely a highlight of our current culture.
One final note the author did mention was the consumption of the base of all these drinks, water. All readers should read the final pages of this book to realize a point on how the most basic of our needs are being used to have us consume.

Note that throughout the book the author explains the progress of these drinks in detail with history, religious points, and interesting images.

Enjoy!

Great History even if told through liquid refreshments. One is struck by how history can be viewed as the enrichment of previous experiences, inventions and ideas into greater and greater quality....witness the advent of language to the alphabet to temple reports to fiction to electronic media. In this case it is the liquids we drink and the fascinating way they were discovered, produced and how they changed society. We in the West are well-acquainted with these whereas some parts of the world (Muslim areas) banned many of these and thus did not undergo (for good or bad) the various social changes they wrought.

The work is short, simple, pleasing and - except for a couple of quibbles - factual. Don't look for detailed analysis or sweeping statements of unique import - just six good stories of a drink and how they changed the world today.

Breathing is essential, but the air is free and no one has found a way to make it special enough that people will pay for the privilege, unless you count the hits of pure oxygen that some favor. Eating is essential, and of course there are countless ways that the activity has been turned into a trade. Between them, as far as the body's needs go, is drinking, that is, drinking water, and while there is a pretty good trade in more-or-less pure water, it's the stuff that is added to water that has changed history. Or, at least, that is the view of Tom Standage in the sprightly _A History of the World in 6 Glasses_ (Walker & Company). An overview of world history that is based on what people imbibe might seem to be a theme too narrow to tell us much, but this enjoyably breezy overview looks into science and culture through the millennia and shows that humans took a physiologic necessity and used it to shape the ancient, classical, and modern worlds.

Beer, for instance, gave us history itself. The workers who built the pyramids were paid in beer, and Egyptians would greet each other with the phrase "Bread and beer," a genial wish for prosperity. The pictures of Egyptians enjoying their beer show them doing it together, using straws communally inserted into a big jar of beer; using straws kept the floating stuff at the top from being ingested. Wine, by contrast, was the drink of the elite ever since it spread through ancient Greece. It is remarkable that thousands of years later, though the categories have merged somewhat, beer has remained the working man's everyday drink while wine has remained an exotic, fit for connoisseurship and social differentiation. Rum was "The world's first global drink" and a key part of the slave trade as well as of the American drive to independence. George Washington eventually distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon, but when he campaigned for the House of Burgesses in 1738, he distributed, besides wine and cider, twenty-eight gallons of rum and fifty of rum punch. This went to a county with only 391 voters. The use of coffee took off in European coffeehouses, and the tradition of coffee being a thinking beverage continues; we have Internet cafés rather than internet bars. Tea was a perfect drink for sober, productive attendants of the machines that powered the industrial revolution, and tea breaks were part of the job. Coca-Cola was sold until 1865 as a medical elixir, but since not everyone is ill but everyone gets thirsty, it was thereafter marketed as a drink, not a drug. Coke was an all-American drink and the harbinger of the consumerism of globalization, largely due to its participation in World War II. Soldiers all over the world wanted this liquid bit of home while they were overseas, and the Coca-Cola company was happy to oblige them, especially since it got an exemption from sugar rationing as a product essential to the war effort. The soldiers eventually came back home, but the company continued distribution to the locals.

Standage comes around in an epilogue to our basic beverage, water. There is an amazing paradox that now in nations which have good water supplies, people are bypassing them to buy bottled water. This is despite bottled water having no real advantages; it is not more nutritious or pure, and it might even be more likely to grow germs. It also costs hundreds or thousands more than tap water. But trendy bottled waters are not really a problem; access to water is, with a fifth of the world's population not having reliably safe drinking water. Water wars loom in various areas of the globe, and may well do as much shaping of our future as the other six drinks have in bringing us to the present. Standage's entertaining tour of thousands of years of drinking history makes plain that what we drink will continue to change the world in unexpected ways.

While this book is History Light, it is nonetheless a good read packed with a lot of very entertaining facts. Standage's premise -- that six beverages are emblematic of six eras in man's history -- is overreaching, and he is guilty of manipulating his facts to suit his premise. The second and third sections, on wine and distilled beverages, are the weakest as a result of Standage's adherence to his premise, and would have been much better if he had just presented each of those sections as a straightforward history of the beverage in question. Also, Standage's insistence on his theme causes him to leave out some good stories that would have fit nicely into the book, such as leaving out the early 18th Century gin craze in England and Holland, because it would have messed up his timeline and fallen in the era of Coffee rather than Distilled Spirits. But these are quibbles. Standage's presentations of the stories of these six beverages are excellent, well-researched and written to entertain. The first and last sections, on beer and Coca-Cola, are the strongest and full of interesting information, and his concluding chapter (in which he names his candidate for the next epoch-defining beverage as clean drinking water) is timely and thoughtful. This book is worth reading.

`A History of the World in 6 Glasses' by Tom Standage is an addition to a great genre of popular non-fiction on some important, but often ignored subject in the same vein as `Robbing the Bees' by Holley Bishop, Mark Kurlansky's works, `Cod' and `Salt' and `New Yorker' writer, Susan Orlean's `The Orchid Thief'. In fact, like Kurlansky, Master Standage has done at least two other books in this genre to date, `The Victorian Internet' and `The Turk'.

This volume presents a part of the history of six of the world's most important beverages, beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola, or, more accurately American cola drinks. Each of the six essays does not cover the whole history of each beverage. It only covers the time and place in which each beverage became popular. There are many dissimilarities between the six, but there are also important similarities. The author points out that all six contain an important psychoactive ingredient. The first three contain alcohol and the second three contain caffeine. What the author notes in each essay is that each beverage was also considered or was actually an aid to health or an improvement to water as a safe beverage in that either the alcohol or the heating in the preparation of the drink, or some chemicals in the source material helped kill any bacteria in the water used to make the beverages.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this book are the connections made by the author between his primary subject and other major social and economic facts of the times in which the beverage became popular. One of the more interesting `sidebars' are the relative fates of wine and coffee in Christian and Muslim cultures, where Christians embraced wine while Muslims, especially Arabs used coffee as a healthy substitute with almost exactly opposite effects from wine. A second interesting sidebar (and, I believe, the subject of his earlier book `The Victorian Internet' is the influence of coffeehouses on 17th and 18th century commerce, art, and politics in London. A third interesting note is the rundown on the wines and other potables of ancient Rome. Filling in what I know about Italian drinking, I can recognize the origins, for example of grappa, made from the dregs of the wine making process.

While one may have no argument with the importance of all six beverages, I can't help wondering why the author picked Coca-Cola over hot chocolate. Part of the reason may be that the stories of chocolate and coffee are just too similar to make an interesting contrast. Also, the arrival of coffee, tea, and chocolate all happened at about the same time, so the historical contexts are very similar. I was also surprised that his story on Coca-Cola did not include the time and circumstances surrounding the removal of coca from the drink.

Unlike some works on the history or husbandry of culinary subjects, there is virtually nothing in this book on `how to'. There is not one word on the chemistry of fermentation as it relates to beer, wine, or tea. There is virtually no mention of different varieties of grape and just a few statements on grape varieties and grape culture outside of ancient Greece and Rome. There is much more said about the economics of wine making and trade, just as there is much on the economics of rum, slaves and molasses, forming the three sides of the famous New England to Africa to Caribbean trading triangle active up to the Civil War.

Mr. Standage has very credible credentials as a writer and editor on technical matters, but I found just a few little questions in his presentation of historical facts. The first statement which tickled my skeptical bone was the reference to the `Fertile Crescent' as the arc from the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the uplands of the Nile in ancient Egypt. In my freshman history of the western world class, the `Fertile Crescent' was described as the arc from the Persian Gulf to the Levant, basically following the course of the Tigris and Euphrates. I quickly checked my Times Atlas of Archeology that confirmed my memory from many years ago. The Nile and the growth of the Egyptian civilizations, while parallel to those that began with Akkad and Sumer were done on independent lines, with the yearly Nile flooding providing a significantly different agricultural environment than the non-flooding rivers of Mesopotamia.

A second and more subtle scholarly indiscretion is in the author's treatment of the theory of humors created by the great Greek and Roman medical thinkers such as Hippocrates and Galen. This theory posits four humors, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile and an imbalance between the four being the explanation for various diseases. The author rather intemperately describes this theory, held by thousands of medical practitioners for 2000 years as `utter nonsense', and revealed to be so by 19th century medical research.

My first thought is that the practice of bleeding with leaches was explained and justified by this theory, and I have seen recent articles stating that bleeding with leeches retains some good medical effects. This leads me to the belief that there were probably other empirically successful practices that were explained by the humors theory. It was certainly not far fetched, as at least three out of the four fluids can be seen, smelled, tasted, and acted upon within the body. I suggest the author reread his Thomas Kuhn (`The Structure of Scientific Revolutions') to see how this weak and, by today's standards, poorly supported theory served its purpose as the best they had at the time.

In spite of these hiccups, this is a great read, even if it strays from its primary subjects now and again. And, it is properly documented with references so that if any statement strikes a chord of interest, you have the means of tracking down the author's sources.

Do you ever wonder where some people find the most interesting things to say at parties -- like how tea aided longevity in China or raised life expectancy in Europe ?

Well it is this kind of book that drives that knowledge. Standage has created a very enjoyable, brisk read that is definately for fun and to load up on fun facts.

By telling the world's history in six glasses (see below) Standage covers alot of ground and sure he misses alot, but its still fun non-the less.

1) Beer -- a basis for why people replaced hunting with farming
2) Wine -- the civilizer of Greece and Rome
3) Hard Spirits -- slavery, the American Revolution
4) Tea -- the life sustainer and improver
5) Coffee -- the fuel for the enlightenment
6) Cola -- particularly Coca-cola the expression of cultural dominance.

Sure you have heard some of these stories before, but this book presents history in a fun and entertaining light. So when you go to order your next beer know that you are engaging in high civilization even in a sports bar.

The premise of this book is great, and the author does a good job of covering the territory. Essentially, he explains the importance of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola as a historical catalyst. The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth because they ran out of beer; sea exploration was enhanced because spirits (such as rum) took up less storage room and didn't spoil (as beer will); the Pope blessed coffee, so that consuming it wouldn't be sinful (after all, it was a drink that came from the infidel Arabs). And so on.

If you're looking for lightweight mind candy that's also educational, A History of the World in Six Glasses will be just dandy.

Although Standish does a good job, it's best to think of this book as an introduction to gastronomy-as-history. If you do get seriously interested in the ways that food and drink moved history along in its path, though, you'll find at least a few options for further exploration. For example, you might want to check out _Beer in America: The Early Years--1587-1840_ to understand its role in the American Revolution in more depth. I'd wholeheartedly recommend _Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World_ by Mark Pendergrast. And I'd encourage you to dive into _Nathaniel's Nutmeg_ by Giles Milton, to learn more about the spice trade (so THAT's why the Dutch traded away New Amsterdam to the British!). These books are much more in depth, which is both their strength and weakness. You might want 60 pages about coffee's role in history rather than 300. But, since I'd read them before I read this book, I found Standage's overview an eensy-bit thin. I don't consider that a serious demerit, however; if you like what you read here (and I think you will), you'll simply be glad to discover that there's more to learn.

The title of this book might make you think this is just about the history of some beverages.

Yes you learn how beer came about, wine, etc. But what makes this book most fascinating is how it connects everything with society both past and present. Each section is entertaining and goes on some relevant tangents giving some insightful tidbits about things such as the Industrial Revolution, the Greek way of life and how coffee fueled important ideas and revolutions. Some portions are very funny and entertaining while some parts are very serious and might give some some readers a different take on how their beverage consumption might affect someone a thousand miles away.

Bottom line: this is a fascinating book that really makes you think a little differently each time you fill whatever cup, mug or glass you've got in your hand.

[AND OF COURSE ...what better way to relive history than to drink the appropriate beverage along with their corresponding chapter(s)?]

What can you say except, "I'll drink to that."

As I first started looking at this book I was reminded of James Burke and his 'Connections.' Like Burke, Mr. Standage looks at the six (well maybe seven) drinks that basically were a technology that changed history.

To illustrate this I'll talk about only one of his drinks -- Beer. Beer probably began as some leftover cooked grain, perhaps the kids morning cereal, was left outside in the rain. Soaking in water, it turned into malt. Wild yeast fell into the mix, and in a few days the result was beer. While I'd bet it was foul tasting beer, it was the only alcoholic beverage around.

OK, so you have beer, how does this mean anything? Well, to get more beer, you need more grain. To get more grain you basically move from being a hunter-gatherer to a farmer. You also need the ancillary technologies of pottery to make and store the product. If you have beer, and your neighbors have food, perhaps you can make a trade. Expand on this and you have a need for writing, for record keeping, for accounting. And with accounting can the tax people be far behind? And that's not all. No pathogen lives through the brewing process, so all of a sudden you have a beverage that's safe to drink, cutting down on illnesses. Think about all that the next time you sip a brew.

Surprisingly, a lot of the glasses Mr. Standage talks about have this same factor of sterilizing the water, thereby cutting down on disease.

A delightful book, now if we can only get it made into a TV series.

This is a good example of why history is fun. Tom Standage has investigated the origins of six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola and has found innumerable connections, interconnections, and insights into not only the histories of the drinks themselves but also their impacts on the larger human story. The links Standage finds, for example between coffee and the Enlightenment or tea and the Opium Wars or wine and beer and their effect on class and cultural tensions in Greece and Rome, just a few of the many insights you'll find in the book) are fascinating. Standage also provides one of the most succinct but thorough dissections of the globalization debate I have ever seen in his coverage of "Coca-Colonization."

A History of the World in Six Glasses is much more than just a history of six beverages. It is history as it should be written (and taught).