A History of the World in Six Glasses

About this book

Whatever your favourite tipple when you pour yourself a drink you have the past in a glass. You can likely find them all in your own kitchen beer wine spirits coffee tea cola. Line them up on the counter and there you have it: thousands of years of human history in six drinks. Tom Standage opens a window onto the past in this tour of six beverages that remain essentials today. En route he makes fascinating forays into the byways of western culture: Why were ancient Egyptians buried with beer? Why was wine considered a classier drink than beer by the Romans? How did rum grog help the British navy defeat Napoleon? What is the relationship between coffee and revolution? And how did Coca-Cola become the number one poster-product for globalization decades before the term was even coined?