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Synopsis
The technology editor at the Economist explores how liquid refreshment not only quenched humanity's thirst throughout history but also determined how cities developed,
wars were fought, and lives were lived.
Review
If recent titles are to be believed, oysters, zero, cod, salt, spice, and dust have all been catalysts for some of history's momentous developments. Perhaps as an anodyne to the imposing spectacle of
human progress, many writers have chosen to filter the past through the lens of the commodity, but such efforts can often
feel contrived. Thankfully, Tom Standage's historical weltanschauung holds water. Actually, not merely water, but also beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola.
Standage's The History of the World Through 6 Glasses is much what you might expect. It follows Stone-age man to Space-Age man through their respective beverages of choice. Unlike
other recent, materialist histories, however, Standage's account makes a convincing central claim: man didn't make the drink;
rather, the drink made man. Take beer, for instance: discovered virtually simultaneously with cereal grains around 10,000
BCE, beer helped induce man to abandon his theretofore-nomadic existence. By the time of the Egyptians, beer was widely used
as currency: the first written document, a clay cuneiform wage slip from 3,200 BCE, prominently features the symbol for beer.
Beer, along with wine and coffee, can be called the "good glasses" in Standage's narrative. Wine brought together the Greeks
in democratic symposia while, for the socially conscious Romans, it offered an excuse for conspicuous consumption and class
differentiation (a legacy of snobbery that still resonates today). Coffee was the Enlightenment's great equalizer, as both gentlemen and peasants could meet in
cafes. According to Standage, this fraternal milieu was largely responsible for the French Revolution.
Spirits, tea, and cola, however, played far more nefarious roles on the world stage. Rum, made from molasses, a by-product
of sugar production, became an integral part of the malevolent triangle trade of sugar, spirits, and slaves. Tea fuelled Dutch
and English colonization of the Near East. Coca-Cola — which accounts for 3 percent of humanity's total liquid intake — is a tool of and a symbol for American domination.
One almost wishes Standage was making this up, but his facts are well-marshalled and his analysis is sober. He may see the
world through glasses, but they're not rose-colored ones.
- Joshua David Stein
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