A History of the World in 6 Glasses Reviews

A New View into History, June 16, 2005

What can you say except, ?I?ll drink to that.?

As I first started looking at this book I was reminded of James Burke and his ?Connections.? Like Burke, Mr. Standage looks at the six (well maybe seven) drinks that basically were a technology that changed history.

To illustrate this I?ll talk about only one of his drinks ? Beer. Beer probably began as some leftover cooked grain, perhaps the kids morning cereal, was left outside in the rain. Soaking in water, it turned into malt. Wild yeast fell into the mix, and in a few days the result was beer. While I?d bet it was foul tasting beer, it was the only alcoholic beverage around.

OK, so you have beer, how does this mean anything? Well, to get more beer, you need more grain. To get more grain you basically move from being a hunter-gatherer to a farmer. You also need the ancillary technologies of pottery to make and store the product. If you have beer, and your neighbors have food, perhaps you can make a trade. Expand on this and you have a need for writing, for record keeping, for accounting. And with accounting can the tax people be far behind? And that?s not all. No pathogen lives through the brewing process, so all of a sudden you have a beverage that?s safe to drink, cutting down on illnesses. Think about all that the next time you sip a brew.

Surprisingly, a lot of the glasses Mr. Standage talks about have this same factor of sterilizing the water, thereby cutting down on disease.

A delightful book, now if we can only get it made into a TV series.

Source: http://www.listenable.org/cat/cooking-food-wine/4504.html

david barton nicki minaj super bass video spina bifida lady antebellum need you now sophia loren