A History Of The World In 6 Glasses Chapter Summaries

A History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage, discusses the influence of various drinks on certain events and throughout the course of history. The drinks we read about in this book are beer, wine, spirits, tea and (from the epilogue) water. The overall purpose of this book is to explain and prove that each of these drinks had a profound effect on the world. Tom Standage is a digital editor and an author who wrote a plethora of books on an array of events and times throughout history. That being said, Standage’s work can be trusted and recommended as he is a qualified writer. The prologue gives a brief introduction into each of the six drinks that are included in the book and gives hints to as how each of those affected history. The

Unlike a traditional book about history, A History of the World in 6 Glasses moves through the timeline of the world from drink to drink rather than from event to event. The book puts the drinks as the focus and the rest of the events and history around it second, while a traditional history book would focus on the events. This allows for an enjoyable experience for the reader, as they get to view the same accounts of history from a different perspective. A History of the World in 6 Glasses was published in 2005, so almost all his work is compatible with the information we have today in 2017. There is one main section where there are notable differences since the book was published and right now. This section is the epilogue. Interestingly, rather than wrap up all that we have learned throughout the book, Tom Standage decides to introduce new information about a seventh drink that we have not yet discussed, water. This is an interesting choice as I, personally, would have rather seen a summary that brings everything back to one central idea rather than get into a whole new

Despite of this, there are still many elements that are useful for our studies. The most obvious one is the affects that drinks had on trade. Each one of these drinks relied on human connection in order to flourish and grow. Specifically, the growth of trade from these drinks is a point of interest for us as historians. The trade of brandy lead to an increased amount of slave trade, as this is what allowed the trading to occur in the first place. This examples shows us that this drinks did not only have a positive affect on the world, there are some negative uses of these drinks that came about as well. This is a prime example of how history can have positive or negative effects depending on your point of view. Another piece of this book that we can draw something important from is during the British control of tea trade. Originally, tea originated in Japan but was brought to Britain where it began to flourish. This example of cross-cultural exchange had a profound effect on the world, as Britain was able to gain a large amount of control simply from a drink. This foreign good made a new home away from where it originated and became a focal point in society.