Weinstein 1Orion Weinstein-AtmanDr. TaylorHistory 3008, Section 122 March 2014Book Review: A History of the World in 6 Glasses World history lessons have been presented in various ways throughout my education. Some history lessons were more interesting, for example in my 6th grade class there was an ancient Egypt day and a "silk road" bazaar event. In other classes, history was taught through standard textbooks that were often much drier. Tom Standage, however, in his A History of the World in 6 Glasses shares a more engaging and certainly not dry way of looking at world history; through what people drank in key historical periods. His thesis is that “Six drinks in particular – beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola – trace the flow of world history” (p.2). Standage goes on to say that although three contain alcohol and three contain caffeine, "what they have in common is that each was the defining drink during a crucial historical period." (p. 2)A History of the World in 6 Glasses is divided into separate sections based on the different drinks that represent a key historical era. Starting around 10,000 years ago, drinks began to have purposes other than quenching thirst. The drinks were used in medicine, currency, and for religious purposes. The first historic drink presented by Standage is beer. With beer he shows how the processing of cereals led to the development of agriculture, migrations and the creation of civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The accidental fermentation of grains into beer was “magical” creating a drink that induced a state of altered consciousness. It was seen as a gift from the gods and used as a religious offering to say thanks... middle of paper... it is strange that currently in countries that have good water supplies, people rather buy and drink bottled water, even if bottled water has no real benefits and is much more expensive than tap water. However, bottled water is not the problem. Access to clean drinking water is the real problem and a fifth of the world's population does not have safe drinking water. There could be wars over water in various areas of the world that could influence our history, as happened with the other six drinks. Standage's thousand-year history of drinking is not entirely complete because it focuses primarily on Europe and America, leaving out much of the history of South America and Africa. However, it proves his point, which is that what we drink is part of the history of the world. The “6 Glasses” reflect the evolution of our world and have changed world history in significant ways.