Tom Standage's Six Drinks

Beer, the first beverage appeared as a result of changed lifestyle for the early humans. Before, humans were nomads, who would follow their food (pg. 9). But starting about 12,000 years ago humans had picked up on a new lifestyle (pg. 9). These small bands of about 30 people were now settling down in more permanent areas and had abandoned their old ways of constantly traveling (pg. 9). This drastic turning point in human history seemed to primarily come from one reason, the discovery of beer (pg.11). As beer was basically formed from the gathering of barley and wheat, humans had to form some type of permanent residency, and abandon their old nomadic lifestyle (pg.11).

The use and creation of beer is closely linked to the domestication of cereal grains and the practice of farming.

There are two reoccurring themes throughout this book. The first theme is how the six drinks (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and coca-cola) have impacted the world. The second theme is that each drink has some kind of medicinal purpose. Whether the drink did not work as a medicine or it did.

The author wants to show that beverages had a great impact on history. He wants to tell his

1. How is the discovery of beer linked to the growth of the first ‘civilizations’?

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage is a non-fiction historical novel, whose main purpose is to show the surprisingly pervasive influence of certain drinks on the course of history. Then it takes the reader on a journey through time to show the history of mankind through the lens of beverages.

As beer started becoming a necessity, it showed the strong need for agriculture in society. People came together, to make an industry of beer, and creating civilizations.

I did actually really like this book. I was not sure if I was going to enjoy it when the project was first assigned, but after reading for a while, I became really interested

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

1. The discovery of beer is linked to the growth of the first civilizations because the discovery of beer was central to social, religious, and economic life, bringing everyone together which was the setup of most

What other events did the beverages that Standage mentions influence? While Standage indubitably cherry-picks his best examples, there must be other examples of events that were influenced by these drinks, as world history is very broad.

Tom Standage’s A History of the World in 6 Glasses takes history and six beverages and connects them to make them one. The beverages spread all over history, from the first civilizations, to Greece and Rome, the age of exploration, the scientific age, the rise of one of the greatest empires of the world, and the rise of America. He connects the drinks to politics, science, philosophy, conflicts, and several more aspects of history. His writing spans many locations around the world whether it is in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the Americas. He connects History to the beverages that we may think have a simple story, but once the book closes there is a newfound complexity to a favorite beverage.

Beer was associated with the domestication of cereal grains meaning it was associated with farming, which was a big part of creating a civilization. 2. What does this history of beer in the ancient world tell us about the early civilizations? The history of beer in the ancient world tells us that beer was the epicenter for almost everything in early civilizations.

Eventually beer also had other qualities that allowed farming to progress and that is that beer was not harmful to humans as water was (21). Because of this people found out different ways in which they could produce this drink by having different forms of agriculture advancing its form from regular seeds being planted to massive productions, just as did the Greeks and Romans did by using their slave population to farm all of their grapes for the wine in order to drive a successful wine market (71). Farming allowed for populations to grow from small villages to cities to then allow the adoption of beer and wine to become an essential product that drove agriculture to the civilization and growth of people. Along the same lines we can also see how this development of beer due to farming allowed people to become more than just any regular barbaric man, and show that they were people with class.

Beer has a long history. In 2000 B.C.E., Sumerians had prepared eight different beer types, ranging from “strong,” “red brown,” and “good dark” (Mauk, 2013). Breweries have created their own recipes, brewed their own beers—some with alcohol, some without. Over the past few years, craft beer gained steady market share away from the national and international breweries (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012). Separating one beer from the next is the product itself, and what the product has to offer. Competition is ferocious due to more informed, sophisticated consumers, as well as globalization and the spread of technology (Murray & O 'Neill, 2012).