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A History Of The World In Six Glasses Chapter Summaries

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The History of the World in Six Glasses: Book Review In the book, A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage, it explains world history through the six most popular and influential drinks dating back from approximately 3400 BCE to present day. Throughout human history, these six drinks have done more than just quench thirst; they have influenced the course of history from humankind’s adoption of agriculture to the advent of globalization.
Beer:
Beer was not particularly an invention, Standage says, it was more so a discovery, when it came about in the Mesopotamia society around 3400 BCE. Water was the only beverage the Mesopotamians ever knew, until they came upon a new drink derived from barley, wheat, and cereal grains. Beer had become the staple beverage of the earliest civilizations. Both rich and poor people consumed beer. It had become the center of religious, social, and economical life for the Mesopotamians. Standage claims that “[Beer] came into existence during… the switch from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle” (Standage p. 10). In this text provided, Standage infers that beer was a factor that helped the Mesopotamian society become a civilization rather than continuing on with the nomadic lifestyle, this shift led to a sudden increase in social complexity and the emergence of cities. …show more content…

The beverage brought people together and also, it changed the Mesopotamia culture radically by helping them become stationary and giving them new traditions. The author makes great points and explains how beer came to be in this section, but he cannot prove that beer was the reason why the Mesopotamians settled down. They settled down because the soil was fertile, they had two major rivers and it was located on the Fertile Crescent, making this the perfect place to start a

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