A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage, tells how drinks shaped our history. There are 6 major drinks: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. As the drinks changed, the culture changed with them. Each drink defined the culture in that time period. In the opinion of this student, beer is the most important because it led to writing, the first settlements, money, and medicine while spirits only had bad influences.
Although we do not know the origins of beer, historians know the discovery was accidental. After the discovery, people would have wanted to make sure that they had a more stable supply of grain, than unreliable wild grains. Therefore, beer most likely led to the first farming settlements. For the first time, because of farming, people had a surplus of food. The surplus of food allowed for people to become artisans, so not
…show more content…
Spirits are distilled beer and wine with some other additives in different mixes. Spirits, just like beer, were used as medicine. Spirits were also used as the first form of payment for African slaves and led to the massive slave trade. Also, spirits were used as currency and wages in rural America. The Americans would give whiskey to Indians during trades, so they could manipulate them. Since spirits had a stronger alcohol content, it was now faster and easier for people to get drunk.
Spirits were basically just beer in another form. Beer and Spirits were both used as a form of money and medicine, so spirits were no different from beer in that way. Spirits also led to slavery and exploitation which were sad times in history. This student believes overall, that spirits influenced in the same way beer did in many ways, like currency. The only ways that spirits influenced history differently than beer, were through terribly acts of trickery and taking someone else’s