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Book Reviewed by:From the book jacket: Throughout human history certain drinks have done
much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority
and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the
course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical
period.
Comment: Standage presents history through the lens of 6 drinks from the
dawn of civilization. Farming allowed our ancestors to build
surpluses of food, including grains - and it wasn't long before they were
fermenting those grains into beer. The Greeks made wine, which thus
became important to the Romans and no doubt influenced the areas that Rome
felt were worth colonizing. The Arabs mastered the art of distilling
alcohol (very useful for those long voyages during the Age of
Exploration!) Coffee was the ideal beverage for 'The Age of Reason'
and coffee-houses quickly became the hub for intellectual, industrial and
financial goings on. Tea lubricated Britain's industrial revolution
and had far reaching effects on Britain's foreign policy (and remembering
that a goodly portion of the world was colonized by Britain at the time,
its influence was substantial - even a trigger for the American
Revolution). Lastly, Standage links the rise of American capitalism
to Coca-Cola - the former cough medicine, now global commodity.
'The Economist's technology editor has the ability to connect the smallest
detail to the big picture and a knack for summarizing vast concepts in a
few sentences.' - Publishers Weekly starred review.
This review
first ran in the June 1, 2005
issue of BookBrowse Recommends.
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