Cooper Bailey Professor Scott McKinlay CULF 3330 22 March 2018 A History of the World in 6 Glasses: A Comparative and Contrasting Essay The history of the world has been of profound interest to many for a very long time. The invention of written records allowed ancient civilizations to begin recording changes in human history. These changes have been documented as a recollection of past events and personalities that have had an impact in transforming the world into what it is today. Tom Standage’s book, A History of the World in 6 Glasses, explores the origins of six drinks and their influence in the development of the history of the world. These drinks – beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and cola not only explain the social evolution of humankind, …show more content…
The discovery of beer nearly 12,000 years ago, which was accidental, by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, marks the transition between the Paleolithic hunter-gatherer and nomadic lifestyle to the Neolithic way of life, the farming lifestyle. With this new lifestyle, people settled down and built houses around the fields. The rise of plants and animals gave way to agriculture and the cultivation of wheat and barley. Beer contributed by increasing the amount of grain that needed to be cultivated, by replacing meat as a source of vitamin B (which allowed hunting to decline), and by making liquid nourishment safe. Beer quickly became “the staple beverage of the early civilizations and was known as the drink that first helped humanity along the path to the modern world” (Standage 10). These groups of hunter-gatherers found this beverage “slightly fizzy and pleasantly intoxicating” (Standage 15). It was used in many religious ceremonies because of it intoxicating quality. They found out that it was easier to make than other alcoholic beverages. “Beer drinking was seen as a hallmark of civilization by the Mesopotamians is particularly apparent in a passage from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's first great literary work” (Standage 26). As time went one, the quality increased by trial and error, as well as the increase in the different varieties of