A History Of The World In Six Glasses Analysis

Tom Standage’s A history of the World in Six Glasses divides world history based on the defining drinks, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola for each period, under the common theme that humankinds most basic need of water is fundamental to life. The novel explores the expansion and interaction of cultures between humans and their environment through dissemination, origins, and the adoption of knowledge and philosophies. Becoming a catalyst for advancing the creation of civilization and historical developments, beer and wine played a variety of pivotal roles in early society central to agricultural, social, and economic life.
Beer and wine’s fortuitous origins are both closely entwined with the development of agriculture and the cultivation

Around 10,000 BCE in the region known as the Fertile Crescent, the gathering of wild grains rose in prevalent popularity, inevitably leading to the domestication of cereal grains and eventual discovery of beer and wine. Not only did the wild grains provide a reliable food source, but could also be stored for later consumption, inspiring the hunter-gatherers to stay in one place. This caused a pivotal shift in human history, abandoning the once nomadic way of life to a settled lifestyle. This new lifestyle brought about villages, eventually resulting in the first permanent settlements and the start of an agricultural civilization. With the adoption of farming, abundance of grains and imperfect storing came the unprecedented finding of gruel – being that when grain is moistened it produces enzymes that convert the starch into sugar. Not long after, eventually happening upon that “Gruel that was left sitting around for a couple of days underwent a mysterious transformation, particularly if it had been made with malted grain: It became slightly fizzy and pleasantly intoxicating, as the action of wild yeasts from the air fermented the sugar in the gruel into alcohol. The gruel, in short, turned to beer.” (Standage 19) Contrastingly,

Beer was a social drink from the start not dependent on social statuses or wealth, being drunk from a shared vessel as is commonly depicted in many ancient artifacts. Though not only was beer for social events, the beverage became an exceptionally intricate part of everyday life along the Mesopotamian and Egyptian regions. "In both cultures [Egypt and Mesopotamia], beer was a staple foodstuff without which no meal was complete. It was consumed by everyone, rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, from the top of the social pyramid to the bottom. It was truly the defining drink of these first great civilizations." (30) As time progressed Sumerian temples, which started as basic storages in preparation of grain shortages, were put in control of the settlements economy and started collecting grains from farmers as taxes, then distributing them or the beer, as wages. The Temples collection of taxes, which required a fundamental system of receipts to be developed, subsequently evolved into the first written documents, eventually into the first language of cuneiform. Grains, bread, and beer became opportune and widespread forms of payment and currency no matter what class. Contrastingly to Egyptian and Mesopotamian beer