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A History of the World in 6 Glasses

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Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

For Tom Standage, each drink is a kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite drink the same way again.

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2005

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About the author

Tom Standage

18 books480 followers
Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, and has published five books, including The Victorian Internet[1][2]. This book explores the historical development of the telegraph and the social ramifications associated with this development. Tom Standage also proposes that if Victorians from the 1800s were to be around today, they would be far from impressed with present Internet capabilities. This is because the development of the telegraph essentially mirrored the development of the Internet. Both technologies can be seen to have largely impacted the speed and transmission of information and both were widely criticised by some, due to their perceived negative consequences.

Standage has taken part in various key media events. He recently participated in ictQATAR's "Media Connected" forum for journalists in Qatar, where he discussed the concept of technology journalism around the world and how technology is expected to keep transforming the world of journalism in the Middle East and all around the world.

-Wikipedia

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,097 reviews
Profile Image for Casey.
272 reviews133 followers
March 27, 2013
This book should really be called "A History of the Western World in 6 Glasses," as it doesn't consider the drinks of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and much of Asia. Indeed, tea is considered only through the lens of the British empire, even though the formal Japanese tea service is arguably more interesting than a British tea party. Even as a Western history, it kind of fails, as there's a large gap between wine production in the Roman empire and the distillation of rum in Barbados. This can only be viewed as a surface history of the world, but as far as surface stories go, it's pretty interesting.

Throughout the book, Standage tells the history of six beverages (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola) as they appeared in the historical record. This is actually not so great, as the book ends up talking about beer without ever mentioning Germany, and wine without ever mentioning France or California. Instead of bringing it all back together in the epilogue, he just rambles on about bottled water and (randomly) colonizing Mars.

The book also contains a shockingly uncritical depiction of the Coca-Cola company, which creatives a "beverage" that can best be described as a noxious substance that no one should be consuming, especially not on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the health effects of soda are not discussed.

I'd recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses only to those interested in culinary history and esoterica. History buffs and general readers should skip this one.
Profile Image for Matt.
4,000 reviews12.9k followers
August 21, 2020
A well-written book is sure to quench the thirst of a curious reader, full of facts or action that keeps them coming back for more. But, how did people throughout history quench their literal thirst and how do the beverage choices made throughout history help define the advancements the world has seen since its inception? Tom Standage seeks to answer these and many other questions as he examines how six beverages (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola) help to explain global advancements since humans first inhabited the earth. Standage takes readers as far back as possible to explore how beer could have influenced history so completely. A combination of water and cereal grains, beer was an accidental discovery that exemplifies the sedentary nature of humans. Crops took time to grow and required people to stay in one place for a period of time. The fermentation process also took a period to develop, which required people not to roam freely across the land. Beer could be made and consumed by anyone, which differed greatly from wine. More of a high-class beverage, wine was much more complex to make and costly to consume. As Standage explains, it was developed by the Romans and Athenians, who modified it and created lavish drinking parties around its consumption. Standage also argues that wine helped propel Christianity around the world, as the beverage is at the heart of the religion’s central symbolic theme of the Blood of Christ. Moving from simple fermentation to a more complex system called distillation, spirits came onto the scene and served to propel the world ahead even more. With use of scientific brewing and the addition of sugar to help the naturally impeded yeasts found in fruits or grains, spirits were a more complex and fiery beverage. The need for sugars helped to foster its cultivation, which was back-breaking work. What better way to have sugar harvested than through the use of slaves, which Standage explains helped bring spirits to the New World. Caribbean sugar cane was cultivated by African slaves, creating a tumultuous time in history to facilitate the creation of many new and interesting beverages. An equally popular drink in the form of coffee emerged, which created an enlightenment of sorts. Coffee became the drink of academics and the intellectual, as they would gather to discuss their ideas at coffee houses well in the night. The fostering of discussions, much as wine had done for the Romans and Athenians, came from coffee and, to this day, the correlation between the beverage and higher understanding is accepted. Tea, on the other hand, proved not only to be a drink that brought about medicinal properties, but helped Britain cement its power in the world. While the British Empire gained in importance, the British East India Company developed a worldwide supply of tea and marketed it as best as possible. This power remained strong for centuries, as the British remained at its centre. However, all good things must be replaced with something else, leaving Coca-Cola to move from a pharmaceutical remedy to the drink of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its production skyrocketed and was soon symbolic of America, which developed into freedom before long. American troops all over the world sought the beverage and wherever the US military found itself, freedom was said to be as well. Standage talks at length about the Soviet push-back against Coca-Cola, though the Iron Curtain was no match for the power of the mighty soda pop. In a book that leaves the reader’s head spinning as they reach for their beverage of choice, one can only wonder what the next big drink will be, and how its impact will shape the future. Standage posits his guess in the epilogue, but you’ll have to read to find out. Recommended to those who love history told through a unique lens, as well as the reader who loves to learn as they are entertained.

I quite enjoy looking at history and world events through unorthodox means, particularly when I had not thought to do so myself. Tom Standage does a masterful job at creating this perspective and fills this book with a great deal of information that can be interpreted in many ways. While I only skimmed the surface of his discussions in the paragraph above, the fact that six mere beverages can truly tell so much about how humans have evolved over time is amazing. Standage uses concrete examples to substantiate his arguments and keeps the discussion interesting at all turns. He has little concern about offending, as he speaks openly and frankly at every turn. His attention to detail is like few other books I have read in the past and the fact that topics flow so easily makes the book even more interesting. With twelve strong chapters (two on each beverage), Standage explores the history of the beverage and then discusses its social, political, and economic impact on the world. This permits the reader to better understand his arguments and almost demands taking a step back to see how the pieces all come together. I am pleasantly surprised about how ensconced I was with the arguments presented and can only hope that his other works on the subject of world history are just as captivating. Now then, I need a Guinness to synthesise some of what I read... or maybe a dark roast coffee.... no, a strong tea! Well, while I decide, go find this book and see what you think for yourself.

Kudos, Mr. Standage, for an amazing read. I can only hope other adventurous readers take the time and enjoy this as much as I have.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Profile Image for Margitte.
1,188 reviews582 followers
May 27, 2023
I noticed this book on a few friend's 'to-read' lists and thought I should write a review on it since I read it a few years back and it is still very much part of our family's proud ...intellectual history...8-)

We do not realize how necessary fluids are for our survival. As Tom Standage states, we can live without food for quite a while but will die very soon of fluid deprivation. In fact, aren't we looking for water on Mars before we migrate there? :-))

Initially, I did not plan to buy this book. I was trying to find "The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee" by Stewart Lee Allen.

Tom Standage divided the history of the world into six periods, each forming a different chapter in the book: Beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt; Wine in Greece and Rome; Spirits in the Colonial Period; Coffee in the Age of Reason; Tea and the British empire; Coca-Cola and the Rise of America. Three are alcohol beverages, and three caffeine delights.

The idea for the book came to Tom Standage 'while reading an article in my Sunday newspaper about a wine said to have been one of Napoleon's favourites during exile: Vin de Constance. It is a sweet wine, made in the Constantia region of South Africa, which was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the heroine is advised to drink it because of its 'healing powers on a disappointed heart'. Charles Dickens also mentions the wine, referring in The Mystery of Edwin Drood to 'the support embodied in a glass of Constantia and a home-made biscuit'."

There is perhaps a more subtle, unintentional, humor buried in the amazing facts, and the reader needs to concentrate. It can cramp the reader's style a bit on the think-tank. So much so that I personally often fell asleep and had to reread everything in a new session, which made it tedious in some instances. But the facts are worth learning!

It certainly sheds a bright new light on world history. The book is so laden with information that I found it too much to absorb in one sitting. For instance: the ancient old tea culture of the Chinese which was only discovered hundreds of years later by the Brits, changed the latter's foreign policy forever; brandy and rum, developed from the Arabian knowledge of chemistry, inspired the age of Exploration; Greeks spread their influence through their exports of wine all over the world.

The book encourages thought. Slavery, wars, and sanctions were often fueled by some of these beverages. Reading it all in one book, from Tom Standage's perspective, turns these facts into eye-openers.

For instance: P 80:
"...herbs, honey, and other additives were commonly added to lesser wines to conceal imperfections. Some Romans even carried herbs and other flavorings with them while traveling, to improve the taste of bad wine.

While modern wine drinkers may turn up their noses at the Greek and Roman use of additives, it is not that different from the modern use of oak as a flavoring agent, often to make otherwise unremarkable wines more palatable.

Below these adulterated wines was posca, a drink made by mixing water with wine that had turned sour and vinegar-like. Posca was commonly issued to Roman soldiers when better wines were unavailable, for example, during long campaigns. It was, in effect, a form of portable water-purification technology for the Roman army. When a Roman soldier offered Jesus Christ a sponge dipped in wine during his crucifixion, the wine in question would have been posca."


The location where you read the book does not matter. What is more important is that the information shared in the book ensures a long relaxing discussion on a Sunday afternoon with friends and family. It gives some mundane moments the more meaningful memories it needs.

I initially gave it three stars only because it was not an easy read. I really needed to keep all my ducks in a row for this one. But in retrospect, I changed my mind. His research was excellent!

It is a good read for someone who wants to know how the development of chemistry from ancient times until now changed our world - in an easy, non-scientific, but factual read.

It is the only book I offer to guests to take to bed with them!
Profile Image for Domenico.
48 reviews12 followers
October 16, 2020
I seem to be in a phase where I like books that show me the hidden life of the everyday things all around us, especially food and drink. A few years ago I read "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany", by Bill Buford, which started me on this quest, which was followed by several more books, including "The Omnivore's Dilemma", by Michael Pollan. Most recently I read "The Search for God and Guinness", by Stephen Mansfield.

Now, I've finished "A History of the World in 6 Glasses", by Tom Standage, which connects the span of human history to 6 different beverages that affected history culturally, politically, anthropologically, nutritionally, and economically. The six, in rough order of their era of greatest influence, are beer, wine, whiskey, coffee, tea, and cola. More broadly, you could have called the book "A History of the World in Two Brain-Altering Chemicals: Alcohol and Caffeine."

It is a fascinating look at how these drinks sometimes have been responsible for pivotal moments in history, causing one civilization to rise and another to fall. While human affairs are much more complicated than one factor can explain, we can't deny that one of the reasons ancient tribes turned from peripatetic hunting-gathering to more stationary agriculture was the need to cultivate grains for beer, for instance. (Standage points out that of course the grains were also used for bread too, but bread and beer were nearly interchangeable in most places, two phases of cooking of the same product. Beer was "liquid bread" and bread was "solid beer.")

Most the drinks had origins--or at least early primary uses--in religious rituals, especially beer, wine, coffee, and tea. Whiskey and cola, which were much more modern inventions were just consumer products. Eventually, all of them made the leap to common use. What made them significant was their eventual ubiquity, even if at first they were reserved to the elites.

There were also some very interesting anecdotes, such as the story of how coffee came to Europe from the Middle East. Some theologians rejected it as a Muslim invention, thus of the devil, while others embraced. So a decision had to be made.

Shortly before his death in 1605, Pope Clement VIII was asked to state the Catholic church's position on coffee. At the time, the drink was a novelty little known in Europe except among botanists and medical men, including those at the University of Padua, a leading center for medical research. Coffee's religious opponents argued that coffee was evil: They contended that since Muslims were unable to drink wine, the holy drink of Christians, the devil had punished them with coffee instead. But the pope had the final say. A Venetian merchant provided a small sample for inspection, and Clement decided to taste the new drink before making his decision. The story goes that he was so enchanted by its taste and aroma that he approved its consumption by Christians.


Other sources claim he said: "This devil's drink is so delicious...we should cheat the devil by baptizing it." True or not, I will be sure to thank Pope Clement VIII and pray for him every day over my morning cup of joe.

Another interesting tidbit concerned the importance of tea to the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the 18th and 19th century. As labor became less about individual craftsmen and more about unskilled workers who could maintain machines in monotonous repitition over long hours, tea and tea breaks helped them to remain alert and concentrate. Likewise, even as the factory workers were gathering together in closer working and living conditions, waterborne illnesses became almost extinct, not just due to the boiling of water for tea, but for the phenolic acids--the tannins--in the tea itself.

Infants benefited too, since the antibacterial phenolics in tea pass easily into the breast milk of nursing mothers. This lowered infant mortality and provided a large labor pool just as the Industrial Revolution took hold.


In fact, every one of the six drinks was considered for both their positive and negative effects on society. Coffee led to 16th-century coffeehouses that were the locus of the Scientific Revolution that led to the Enlightenment, democracy, free-market economics, and more. The Chinese stranglehold on tea production and insistence on Westerners buying it with silver, not trading it for Western goods, led to the creation of the opium trade from India that eventually destabilized China in the 19th century, which last through the 20th century until the rise of Communism.

While these six beverages can't be said to have caused the most important and decisive moments of history, they often played significant roles in moments that caused the course of history to go in one direction and not the other. If not for the wine it exported, would Greece have risen to a great culture that brought us philosophy and so much else?Without tea or rum/whiskey, would Great Britain have become the empire on whose flag the sun never sets? Maybe, maybe in a different form or in a different time, but undoubtedly different.

"A History of the World in Six Glasses" was a fun and quick read that makes me want to delve more into the various individual elements it presents. Which is the best kind of book, isn't it?
Profile Image for Patrick Peterson.
486 reviews223 followers
September 17, 2021
23 Feb 2015 - I read this book since my son recommended it to me, while he was reading it for his World History AP class this year. I see why he liked it and I generally did too. It is fun and breezy and covers some fascinating ground that is indeed important, and grossly undercovered in most books or courses in history.

However, the book is a bit presumptuous in stating it is a “History of the World…” or that the six drinks have “defined humankind’s past.” Neither statement is totally true, except in a very loose way, but that should not stop one from reading it.

While refreshingly more open to an objective view of history regarding capitalism, free markets and property rights, than many (most?) history books, the author still promoted some completely foolish ideas by giving them equal or more time vs. sound ideas and facts.

The author needs to explore the idea that all these beverages are/were, in effect, private, not "public" or government created or owned. His epilogue could have been far more informed and informative on the subject of the modern situation of water issues. If he had explored the crucial nature of privatization in man's need for a quality beverage that does not poison him/her, is of reasonable expense and is available to but not wasted by virtually everyone.

The definition of imperialism is likewise not one of the strong suits of the author. His never defining it clearly but none-the-less using its corrupted meaning by communist ideology was very unhelpful. He only tacitly used a definition that has twisted the word with pretzel logic to include non-coercive private firms' actions (but NOT include Soviet or other communist foreign aggression). That is worse than just sad. He is not as bad as many on this score, since he also made fun of the various communist groups' ridiculous attacks on Coca-Cola, much to the detriment of their comrade citizens in the various countries he names. But still, being muddled on this important concept has significant repercussions.

There are other words, incidents, trends, etc. that the author could help the reader by not using, or at least defining carefully (‘consumerism,’ for one), but I just state again, the book has lots to recommend it and I enjoyed and learned a bunch from it overall. It is well written, fun and funny and I recommend it overall.
Profile Image for Stefan Burrell.
19 reviews4 followers
January 26, 2014
This book, I've read twice. It takes you from the formation of beer and society in Mesopotamia, to the use of wine as currency and how wine types represented a social classification system in Greece and Rome. It went through spirits and colonial time: We only have whiskey because it took too long to ship scotch and brandy by wagon out west, so we made corn whiskey. To how coffee was at first banned in Muslim society and called black wine - till they figured that it caused a different state of mind than actual alcohol. To the use of tea as a way to stay hydrated in England, the city was packed full and the water was not the cleanest. Once coffee arrived in England, there were coffee houses for men only because they were a place to smoke and talk politics while drinking coffee. Women in England had tea gardens, nice gardens where they could walk, talk or sit and drink tea. The book wrapped up in the time of just after WWII, granting Coca-Cola responsible as the first company to be globalized. The factories were built in American forts during the war so that the soldier could have coca-cola to drink, when WWII was over the factories remained. Then it dipped a bit to the Cold War as Coke played around with Invisible Coke and than landed at being Coca-Cola Classic, the original recipe minus the cocaine.
Profile Image for Sheyda.
93 reviews19 followers
Read
August 13, 2019
تاریخ جهان در 6 لیوان
نوشته:تام استندیج
انتشار در 2005
کتاب به فارسی ترجمه نشده و من پادکست خلاصه 40 دقیقه ای رو گوش دادم.
این نوع کتاب ها که تاریخ رو با مسائل جزیی و پیش پا افتاده بیان میکنن،میتونه خیلی جذاب و ماندگار توی ذهن باشه.
کتاب از 6 نوشیدنی به ترتیب:
آب جو
شراب
نوشیدنی الکلی(الکل سنگین)
قهوه
چای
سودا
صحبت میکنه،که هرکدوم در چه دوره ای بیشترین تاثیر خودشون رو به طور مستقیم یا غیر مستقیم گذاشتن.در خلال این حرف ها نکات و حوادث مهم و تاثیرگذار اون دوره رو بیان میکنه.

خیلی جالبه اگه توجه کنیم به برخی مسائل جزیی اطرافمون که چه تاثیری در زندگی و تاریخ یه ملت میتونه داشته باشه و جرقه شروع یا پایان چه کارهایی میتونه باشه.
Profile Image for Hossein.
238 reviews49 followers
October 13, 2019
کتاب جالبی بود. یکی دیگه از پیشنهادهای پادکست بی پلاس. اینکه مثلا بدونی چای چه تاثیر مهمی در استقلال آمریکایی داشته که الان در تمام دنیا تاثبرگذاره تامل برانگیزه.
ولی مشکلش به نظرم این بود که شاید اگه اینطوری به هر چیز کوچیکی نگاه کنیم به یه همچین نتایجی برسیم.
بعضی جاها نویسنده سعی کرده بود برای بهتر جلوه دادن منظورش و مهمتر جلوه دادن نقش مواردی که بررسی کرده بود، یه سری بزرگنمایی بی مورد داشته باشه.
3/5
Profile Image for Andy.
1,581 reviews521 followers
September 9, 2012
Pop non-fiction with clever gimmick of six beverages to summarize world history. Plenty of interesting factoids.

One problem is that the flip side of the cleverness of the gimmick is that all sorts of beverages are left out. The human consumption of animal milk, for example, is an interesting story with important implications but we don't learn about that.

Another problem is that the research does not appear to be very deep and so some of the factoids don't seem to be true. For example, tea is credited with protecting the English from bacterial disease around the time of the industrial revolution. But that is when mortality was the highest overall, and if one looks at specific outbreaks like the great cholera epidemic of John Snow fame, it was specifically the beer drinkers who were spared. It makes some theoretical sense that tea should be helpful but that's different from there being any actual evidence of that.

The book edges beyond cocktail-party chatter to serious stuff at the end in a polemic about water.
Profile Image for Donna Craig.
995 reviews35 followers
February 26, 2023
I read this book because my husband was so thrilled with it. The author interprets history through the lens of six beverages which drove it: beer, wine, liquor, tea, coffee, and coke. It really was an intriguing idea.
My favorite part was the ancient history of beer. I knew some of it already, but the author presents the information in a fresh, intriguing voice. Good book.
Profile Image for رزی - Woman, Life, Liberty.
235 reviews104 followers
May 23, 2021
توی این کتاب، تاریخ از دیدگاه جدیدی به شش قسمت تقسیم شده: بر اساس نوشیدنی‌ها! تاریخ در شش برهه‌ی زمان که هریک از این نوشیدنی‌ها رایج بودند، تقسیم و بررسی می‌شه:
آبجو، شراب، مشروبات الکلی، قهوه، چای، کوکاکولا

اولش برام عجیب بود چون نقش نوشیدنی رو در وقایع تاریخی و زندگی و پیشرفت و تمدن‌ها زیادی برجسته کرده بود
و مطالب تکراری هم زیاد داشت
اما به مرور جالب‌تر شد و اطلاعات جالب‌توجهی فهمیدم
گرچه بیشتر روی تاریخ غرب تمرکز کرده بود و منابعش هم گاهی مبهم بودند

بریده‌هایی از کتاب رو می‌نویسم

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تصویرنگاشت‌های سومریان در حدود سه هزار سال پیش از میلاد به طور معمول دو نفر را نشان می‌دهد که از خمره‌ای بزرگ با نی آبجو می‌نوشند.... با وجود آن‌که استفاده از نی دیگر ضرورتی نداشت. شاید تنها توضیح درباره ادامه چنین سنتی این است که می‌شد نوشیدنی‌ها را، برخلاف غذا، به معنای واقعی کلمه با دیگری شریک شد. وقتی چند نفریک خمره آبجو را شریک می‌شوند، همگی یک مایع يكسان را می‌نوشند: در نقطه مقابل وقتی یک تکه گوشت به چند قسمت تقسیم می‌شود، به طور معمول بعضی از آنها خوش‌خوراک‌تر از بقیه هستند. در واقع سهیم شدن در یک نوشیدنی، نمادی جهان شمول از مهمان‌نوازی و دوستی محسوب می‌شود. چنین عملی نشانگر قابل اعتماد بودن شخصی است که نوشیدنی را پیشکش می‌کند، زیرا حاکی از آن است که نوشیدنی سمی یا فاسد نیست.
زمانی که هنوز خبری از جام‌های تک‌نفره نبود و آبجوهای اولیه در خمره‌های بدوی به عمل می‌آمدند نیز این سنت سهیم شدن وجود داشت. گرچه دیگر مرسوم نیست که برای نوشیدن از یک خمره اشتراکی آبجو، یک نی در اختیار مهمان خود قرار دهیم، اما هنوز هم چای را از درون یک قوری داخل فنجان می‌ریزیم یا شراب را از یک بطری مشترک به جام‌ها سرازیر می‌کنیم. وقتی هم در جمع چیزی می‌نوشیم، با زدن جام‌ها به یکدیگر، به شکل نمادین تک تک آن‌ها را به یک ظرف بزرگ و مشترک از همان نوشیدنی مبدل می‌سازیم. این سنت‌ها، ریشه‌هایی بس کهن دارند.

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عمل بالا بردن جام نوشیدنی، در واقع بازتابی مدرن از تصوری باستانی است: الكل واجد قدرتی است که نیروهای ماورایی را فرامی‌خواند.

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وقتی یک برده سیاهپوست از لیگون درخواست کرد ��سیحی‌اش کند، او دوباره پای همان منطقی را به میان آورد که همیشه برای توجيه برده‌داری از آن استفاده می شد: «چنین تقاضایی دارد، چرا که تصور می‌کند با مسیحی شدن از تمامی معارفی که در طلبش است بهره‌مند خواهد شد». با این حال تقاضای برده را به گوش صاحبش رساند و پاسخ هم به طور طبیعی منفی بود، زیرا «براساس قانون انگلستان... نمی توانیم یک مسیحی را به بردگی بگیریم»
{منطقش رو دیدید؟ نمی‌تونیم آزادت کنیم چون این‌طوری نمی‌تونیم به بردگی بگیریمت!😂}

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حس تنفر چینی‌ها نسبت به خارجی‌ها روز به روز بیشتر می‌شد و فساد گسترده، اقتصاد از نفس افتاده و رواج سرسام‌آور مصرف تریاک، همگی دست در دست یکدیگر سبب فروپاشی تمدنی شدند که روزگاری باشکوه‌ترین امپراتوری روی زمین به شمار می‌رفت. استقلال آمریکا و فروپاشی چین، دو میراث بزرگ تأثیر چای بر سیاست‌های بریتانیا و به تبع آن - خط سیر تاریخ جهان به حساب می‌آمدند.

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یک میلیارد ساعت پیش، حیات بشری روی زمین آغاز شد.
یک میلیارد دقیقه پیش، مسیحیت ظهور کرد.
یک میلیارد ثانیه پیش، بیتلز دنیای موسیقی را تغییر داد.
یک میلیارد کوکاکولا پیش، همین صبح دیروز بود.
- روبرتو گویژواتا، مدیرعامل شرکت کوکاکولا، آوريل ۱۹۹۷

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کتاب رو با ترجمه‌ی مانی فرسایی خوندم و ازش لذت بردم، متن اصلی رو نخونده‌م که مقایسه کنم اما ترجمه تر تمیز و خوش‌خوان بود.
کانال تلگرام‌شون برای دانلود کتاب:
@manifarsaie

موفق باشید
Profile Image for Jim.
Author 7 books2,051 followers
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
February 9, 2017
An interesting way of breaking history up by beer, wine, whiskey, coffee, tea, & cola. Each came into its own in our history & may well have driven it in some ways. The basic idea along with a thumbnail of each is laid out in the introduction pretty well. Well enough that I didn't want to continue listening after about half the first section on beer. I didn't care much for the narrator & that wasn't helped by repetitious writing. This would probably be a great book to read, though.

It's doubtful, but I might get back to it at some point.
194 reviews41 followers
April 28, 2018
Had to read this book for school so I obviously didn’t enjoy it 😂
Profile Image for Ashley.
321 reviews19 followers
September 23, 2016
It is funny how we prefer certain aspects of books. Another review here enjoyed the non-alcoholic drinks better than the alcoholic drinks due to the amount of history and economics it covered, but I found the alcohol drinks to be far more interesting, in depth, and entertaining. Overall, I liked this book and learned a lot about how these drinks affected trade and became popular worldwide.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
213 reviews34 followers
May 25, 2007
6 Glasses zeroes in on six liquids--from beer in ancient Mesopotamia to wine and spirits to coffee and tea and finally to cola and the globalization of brands such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola--and targets each as being responsible (or at least culpable) for the shaping of cultures (quite likely), writing itself (quite possible), and industrialization (believable, especially in light of Coke).

Each of the libations receives its proper dues. The organization of the book itself is very well done, and the anecdotes and histories of each are engaging.

The sad irony about 6 Glasses--and it's a rather important one--is that, for all its talk, the book is remarkably dry. Sure, Standage gets wittier than in the opening section on beer, and notably in the chapters on wine and cola, which seem his obvious liquids of choice, but this reader's reserves were nearly sapped after finishing the pages about beer.

He does a bang-up job with his research and presentation in some parts of this book, frames his passages well, and, honestly, the pictures really do help.

"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever," Aristophanes reports to us as the section on wine commences. One wishes that Standage had called for just that. Perhaps it would have made for a more intriguing read.
Profile Image for Starry.
785 reviews
September 11, 2010
I saw this in my sister's to-read list and, boy, am I glad! This was a really fun book to read.
For me.
It was not so fun for my husband, who was stuck sitting next to me and hearing, "Hey, listen to this --" and "Here's something interesting --". But now I'm done, so he can read all the little leftover bits where I managed to hold my tongue and let him enjoy his own book (which probably wasn't half so interesting).

The book attempts to tell the history of the world using six beverages that illustrate the social and political doings of the day: beer (the cultivation of grains), wine (rise of Greek and Roman culture), distilled liquor (sea travel and colonialism), coffee (Age of Reason), tea (British Empire), and Coca-Cola (rise of capitalism, American power and influence). It's a clever way to tell a story.

Although history is told from the typical Euro-centric viewpoint in this book, the beverages and their backstories have impressively global origins: coffee originally from Arabia, tea from Asia, the cocoa and kola from South America and Africa. And some of ingredients' stories, told partly and in passing, would also be very interesting on their own: sugarcane and chocolate, for instance.

Profile Image for neverblossom.
373 reviews1,268 followers
October 7, 2022
4/5

Trừ phần cuối viết về Coca-Cola tớ thấy không đặc sắc lắm, thậm chí hơi nhạt khi bị sa đà vào cuộc đấu đá giữa hai hãng Coca và Pepsi, thì cách triển khai về năm thức uống còn lại (bia, rượu vang, rượu chưng chất/rượu mạnh, cà phê và trà) rất ổn nha các bạn. Đặc biệt là cà phê và trà, đó là hai phần tớ khoái nhất vì tác giả khai thác từng mốc thời gian mà hai loại đồ uống này hình thành hay phát triển, và không quên liệt kê kha khá những sự thật thú vị (hoặc đôi khi, hơi khó hiểu) về chúng nữa.

Chẳng hạn ở thời kỳ cà phê nở rộ, các quán cà phê chỉ phục vụ đàn ông còn phụ nữ thì không được phép vào đó. Trong "kỷ nguyên" của trà, phụ nữ mới được tiếp cận và thoải mải thưởng trà. Các nam thanh nữ tú cũng tán tỉnh nhau trong những "vườn uống trà", khi các anh "vô tình" giẫm phải chân các chị, và sau đó, thả thính bằng cách mời họ tách trà thơm, vân vân và mây mây.

Năm nay có 2 quyển nonfic rất ok cùng xuất thân từ nhà Huy Hoàng, đó là Đời muối và cuốn Lịch sử thế giới qua 6 thức uống này, đọc đến đâu bổ não đến đấy. Cực kỳ rec cho các bạn.
Profile Image for Práxedes Rivera.
428 reviews12 followers
April 20, 2013
It is possible to view history through almost any lens...in this case the author chose drinks to tell a story of the world's development. Filled with interesting facts and carefully researched, the author deftly recounts human/political/religious events from the perspective of six different drinks. Interestingly, half of them contain no alcohol!

I would have rated it higher were it not for the sometimes confusing prose. Transitional phrases from one subtopic to the next did not have the flow needed to cover such an enormous time span seamlessly. But I would definitely recommend it.
Profile Image for SpookySoto.
1,012 reviews137 followers
December 15, 2016
This was a great book. If you're interested in history and beverages I highly recommend it to you.

It explores world history from the point of view of the discovery and consumption of several key beverages: beer, wine, rum, coffee, tea and cola.

I learned a lot. My favorite chapters were the ones about coffee.

I recommend it, specially in audiobook format.
Profile Image for Victor Sonkin.
Author 9 books314 followers
December 20, 2020
A great account of six drinks which were important at different times through the ages (though many of them remained quite important even after they were the drink: beer, wine, spirits (rum/whiskey), tea, coffee, soda. One of the best ways to describe human history.
Profile Image for Wayland Smith.
Author 22 books59 followers
September 18, 2017
I read about this book and was interested in the concept. How have various drinks helped shape human history? I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was a light read that was entertaining and informative. Discussed are beer, wine, rum, coffee, tea, and Coke. I know it sounds like a weird and random assortment, but the author makes it work.

Beer was one of the first drinks mankind made, and some theories about how it happened, ancient stories about it, and its importance to ancient cultures are all covered. Next up is wine, which the author mostly associates with the Greek and Roman peoples. Rum played a big part in the slave trade and, as an aside, he throws in the Whiskey Rebellion, a little-known sequel to the American Revolution. Coffee started in Arab lands, was brought East by traders, and then coffeehouses became all the rage, and had something to do with such diverse things as Newton's Theory of Gravity and the French Revolution. Tea is big in the histories of China, England, and India, and he talks about how it became THE English drink, and the link to the Opium Wars. To wrap it up, what modern drink could sum up the 20th century better than Coca Cola?

It's an interesting read, and not really taxing to follow. I enjoyed it, and if you like learning history in a slightly different way, you may as well.
Profile Image for Zoë.
1 review
June 26, 2015
As someone who's never really enjoyed "proper" history, I'm always surprised when I find myself enjoying a history book. This managed to both entertain and educate me, because with just the 6 drinks highlighted the author managed to create a brief history of civilisation as we know it. It really is amazing how much the fashions for certain drinks (and/or the lack of taxation on certain drinks) has shaped the world!

I think the last chapter, on CocaCola, let the book down slightly though. For the first five drinks, Standage made a fairly convincing argument that they did indeed change the course of human history, however CocaCola is used more as an example of the modern world, not a factor in creating it. It is a good example though, as you will see if you read the book!

I zoomed through this in a couple of days, and I'm even considering re-reading it, but this time taking notes ;)
Profile Image for Laura.
1,279 reviews39 followers
June 10, 2016
Meh... Where it was good, it was GREAT. Oddly (for me, 'cos I don't touch the stuff) the section on coffee was the most interesting.
Where it wasn't great, it ran to boring. Part of me wanted more, thinking it had to be more interesting than what I was reading. But after a while, part of me thought maybe it's just not, and more would be only more of the same.
If you're already interested in this book, go ahead & pick it up. You'll get through it; you will learn some interesting facts; and you may wind up loving it. If you're not interested, you can pass on this one - it won't be worth the work for you, & you won't miss much.
Profile Image for Pongsak Sarapukdee.
281 reviews22 followers
April 10, 2013
สนุกมาก รับรองว่าเมื่ออ่านจบแล้วเวลาจะดื่มเครื่องดื่มเหล่านี้ จะมีมุมมองที่เปลี่ยนไป และเราจะพยายามสัมผัสรสชาดของมันมากขึ้น พอๆกับนึกถึงประวัติความเป็นมาของมัน
Profile Image for کافه ادبیات.
252 reviews102 followers
October 29, 2022
کتاب تاریخ جهان در شش لیوان از تام استندج، تاریخ جهان را از خلال بررسی داستان شش نوشیدنی محبوب جهان یعنی آبجو، شراب، قهوه، چای، کوکاکولا و سودا مرور می‌کند و می‌پردازد به اینکه پیدایش و گسترش مصرف آبجو و شراب و نوشیدنی‌های الکلی و چای و قهوه و سودا و محبوب شدن و توزیع گسترده‌ی هر کدام از این‌ نوشیدنی‌ها چه طور روی دور‌ه‌های مشخصی از تاریخ تاثیر گذاشته است.

خلاصه خوانی
۶ آبان ۱۴۰۱
Profile Image for Fred Forbes.
1,028 reviews58 followers
October 8, 2023
Entertaining and educational - can't ask much more of a book. Well written, interesting and unusual framework for the history of the world as contained in the stories of 6 glasses - beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and colas.

If you are an oldster like me you might remember the classic Late Show hosted by Johnny Carson whose sidekick, Ed Machon would occasionally drop a factoid and Johnny would look at him in astonishment and say "I. Did. Not. Know. That!" Lots of those moments in here as the author examines the process on how the drinks are made, their economic foundations and how they weave into history ranging through Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Quick read which moves right along and well researched. Quite a treat for readers.
Profile Image for Marquise.
1,803 reviews891 followers
January 20, 2020
3.5 stars. This book purports to tell the history of six iconic drinks in world history and how they were spread all over the world hand-in-hand with trade and conquest/colonialism, and as an introductory & popular history book, it fulfills its role just fine. I think those reviewers complaining about the lack of depth and stuff like "where's Germany for the beer section?" and "Where's France and California for wine history?" and "large gaps between wine in Rome and rum in Barbados," and even sillier things like "it should be a history of the Western World instead" are completely missing the point on top of coming to this book with unrealistic expectations.

This is no work of academic rigor, the author is no historian, as simple as that. The author's premise seems to be the economics of drinks and how certain drinks became global beverages riding the coattails of superpowers going on trade or conquest all over the world. Beer, wine, coffee, spirits, tea and Coca-Cola all owe their global popularity to the superpowers and empires of each period that either created them or made them a staple of their economy and culture, which is why the focus is on Mesopotamia, Greece/Rome, Britain, the US, etc. To me, it makes sense that he restricted himself to his narrow scope, so there's no point on including France for the wine section merely because it wasn't France that made it a global drink, nor was it Germany who made beer an universal drink, much less was it Japan who spread tea culture across the globe. There's no history of indigenous South American beverages here because people across the globe aren't drinking chicha, and the premise is "six cups," not "every alcoholic drink in existence." Standage hasn't pretended to tell the history of every single drink in every culture in all periods of human history; it's just silly to think it's a flaw of the book that he hasn't. There are books about the missing drinks, and it sounds plain pedantic to object "whataboutism" as a flaw of the book, when it has others worth mentioning.

To me, the flaws come from the writing, which although light, good-humoured and easy to read, is rather simplistic and repetitive. Journalistic more than writerly. Second flaw of note is that the sections are uneven as far as engaging the reader's interest is involved. The section on beer is interesting and it covers the most accepted anthropological theories about the origins of alcoholic drinks (which I guess you'd have to be familiar with to spot, because Standage doesn't state them as plainly but in passing), but the section on wine is rather boring. If you're a Roman history enthusiast, like I am, then it's too simple, almost like written for children, and there's some inaccuracies that remind you Standage is no historian (the part on "posca," for example, is incomplete and not very accurate). The section on spirits gets more interesting and lively, but it feels too summed up because it covers several centuries in just a few paragraphs. The coffee section is mildly interesting, but feels incomplete because it doesn't cover some cultural aspect of the adoption of coffee in Europe, such as the religious ramifications; it's purely economic and mostly a collection of anecdotes. Then the tea section is again an utter bore, and finally the Coca-Cola section is definitely the most interesting of all. You get the point? It's quite unevenly researched.

It's worth your time if you want an easy-peasy introduction to beverages and their key role in the economics of conquest, but don't expect to get a very profound analysis nor a deep historical treatise. This is just fun and will add to your collection of historical trivia.

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