A History Of The World

Only one thing matters more than a liquid refreshment, getting a fresh breath of air. But liquids, unlike air, are more than just necessities for life. A simple drink that was used just to quench a thirst had the possibilities of being a political stimulant, economic sparker, and a cultural infuser. Tom Standage decides to magnify the microscopic drops of history that had seemed to slip our minds so easily as just a thirst quencher. Whenever someone picks up a nice cold glass of one of these drinks, they should know the history of it.

The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks is a book about the historical changes that have happened in the period of 1400-1850. He shows that how Asia is the center prior of the 1800s not the standard Eurocentric and it 's a polycentric world in term of the world trade. In the Origins, he focuses on the economic history where geographical on China, India, and England. In the beginning of the book he starts with a summary of "Rise of the West" where he say " the west as dynamic, forward looking, progressive, and free, and Asia as stagnating, backward, and despotic. After that he started building up or narrating the historical events in five-chapters based on an his vision of the world history, and he does it in a way that makes the reader agree with him to get the main key of the historical concept such as conjuncture. Also he takes about the most advanced societies across the Eurasian (China and England) and the two economic structures ( biological old regime and trading networks). He also takes the importance of the Indian ocean and he sees it as the "most important crossroads for global exchanges of goods, ideas, and culture" when Europe was " a peripheral, marginal player trying desperately to gain access to the sources of wealth generated in Asia. He brings a very good evidence that pictures the traditional China 's technological and Naval superiority, of the "well-developed market system" in Asia. Also he showed he superior quality of the Indian cottons and the

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage is about six drinks (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and coca-cola) and how they have affected the world in the past and the present. All of these drinks were invented in different eras, and the inventions of these drinks were affected by what had occurred in the time period.

2) Why was it so important to Europe’s development that many people’s beverage of choice switched from alcohol to coffee?

The author, Robert B. Marks introduces the book, The Origins of the Modern World by introducing the reader to a global narrative of the origins of the modern world starting from 1400 to the present. The book presents the rise of the west as an issue of globalization of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Throughout the book, we see the connection made by the author between the environmental condition and the present economic status of a particular place. By the end of the book, readers are able to understand and reason out what created and solidified a gap between the east and the west, industrialized and non-industrialized and parts of the world that today are defined as the modern world.

readers that drinks have had a greater impact on history than normally recognized. The fluids are

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.

There are many things that shape the course of history. Powerful rulers, deadly diseases, and influential religions are a few common examples of these. But, one group of influential commodities to shape history that not many people consider is beverages. In particular, beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and cola are six that have significantly shaped the course of history. The nonfiction book, A History of the World in 6 Glasses, written by Tom Standage, discusses the significance of these six popular drinks in relation to human culture shaping around their existence.

In History: A Very Short Introduction, Arnold weaves together various anecdotes including a 14th century murder, an epic regarding the corybantic slaughter of cats in France, the varying accounts of a Sojourner Truth speech, and many more stories to emphasize why history matters and the problems inherent in its recording. Throughout his novel, he contests the stance taken by Thucydides, a notable Greek historian. Thucydides lived from 460 BCE to 400 BCE and was famous for his work, The History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounted the conflict between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides firmly believed that history was meant to solely record the stories of politics, the state and great men — a belief that John Arnold throughly opposes. With his beliefs and narratives, he created a precedent that negatively influenced historiography for many years to come, for historians chose to disregard the lives and stories of the common man. It was this precedent that the historian Arnaldo Momigliano referred to as Thucydides’ Tower. “Arnaldo Momigliano (a modern author) remarked that having shut himself up in this tower of political history, Thucydides wanted to confine all of us there too” (34). The idea of Thucydides’ Tower itself refers to a metaphorical prison out of which historians could only see politics, war and the actions of great men; Looking out from the tower, their vision was far too narrow to see the lives and stories of the everyday man. Indeed, if Arnold wished to have a

All empires sought to foster an imperial identity that transcended more local identities and loyalties.

Water is believed to be the most quintessential and contributing drink towards the progress of the human race. While that may be the case, water was aided by many beverages that were developed over time. People were destined to eventually make, invent, find or discover these universal beverages, as described in A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage. He writes about six different beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola, which were all blown up to influence lifestyles, customs, cultures and more. While the six important beverages have not necessarily had a positive influence, they still demonstrate the different themes that define the progress of world history.

Beer started out as gruel, and as the gruel fermented it turned into beer. Now it was not the first form of alcohol, but it was an important kind of alcohol. Beer was made from cereal crops, which were very abundant, and because it was so abundant it could be made whenever it was needed. They then found an even easier way to make beer by using beer-bread. Beer bread is basically everything needed to make beer in a loaf, making it convenient to store the raw beer materials. Beer started as just a social drink but then blossomed into a “hallmark of civilization”, as seen by the Mesopotamians. Grain was the basis of the national diet, it was

5. In Rome wine was seen as a necessity by the people and they felt like they needed to drink it while in Greece it was just seen as a leisure drink.

In the beginning of the Paleolithic Era, bands of humans progressively migrated from East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and then to the Americas while adapting to their new regions. During the Paleolithic era, hominids used crude tools like clubs and choppers to crack open bones, simple axes, and scrapers to prepare animal hides. As the years went on the Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Homo sapiens amended these tools and created new ones. They made these tools so that they can provide shelter, protection, defense from other predators, food, and also clothing. As the Paleolithic era was ending, the hominids were building much more innovative wood and stone structures. They also started

Beer and wine might have been one of the first drinks that caused humans to civilize and create a great community. In fact Tom Standage introduces us to this idea of these early drinks shaping human culture in his book A History of a World in Six Glasses. As Standage informs us about how beer was one of the causes in early settlement, and why farming was led to a great success because of the use of beer. Standage also mentions a start in traditions and a formation of government due to these drinks. Although beer being very important, Standage also introduces us to wine as a form of a class status that helped man distinguishing barbarism to a world of high standards and manners allowing for the community to become more cultured and