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%must be run from master directory
\input mla8.tex
%%preamb
\def\sec#1{{\bf #1}\smallskip\hrule\medskip}
\def\ifcited{\expandafter\iftrue \def\ifcited{\iffalse}}
\def\stancite#1{%
\cite{\ifcited \newcite \nameinline \fi
\name{Standage}{(Page numbers may be inaccurate due to my version) Standage, Tom}%
\contain{A History of the World in Six Glasses}%
\publish{Bloomsbury Publishing}%
\pubdate{2005}%
\pagenum{#1}%
}%
}
%%document data
\numberfirstpage
\name{Holden} \last{Rohrer}
\prof{Wrobleski}
\clas{AP World History}
\day=12
\header
\title{{\it A History of the World in 6 Glasses} by Tom Standage Analysis}
\sec{Biography} %One paragraph biography of the author
Tom Standage is an Oxford-educated writer, currently acting as the deputy editor of {\it The Economist}. He reports on science and technology, often using historical analogy to give insight into moder\kern0.05pt\relax n developments. He has also written six books about history, including {\it A History of the World in 6 Glasses}. Significantly, he likes to play the drums.
\sec{Thesis} %In one sentence, explain the major point of the book. What does the author want you to lear\kern0.05pt\relax n from his book?
Technological development, trade, and culture affect what kinds of beverages people drink and how people drink those beverages, so the progression of different drinks throughout time confers historical information about society.
\sec{Summary} %In 2-3 paragraphs summarize the major points of the book
For the majority of history, alcohol was the dominant drink because it was medicinal, sanitizing unclean water by boiling, especially useful when waste disposal methods didn't exist (human waste infected the water sources in the agricultural age). The first major alcoholic drink was beer, the easiest to make en masse after long-term grain storage was discovered. This could be fermented in non-pottery vessels, so it existed before the invention of pottery in 6000 BCE. The invention of pottery allowed wine-making, but it never became as popular as beer, so it was expensive and typically reserved for royalty. In the Greek Empire, there was a similar norm. Greeks created symposia where men explored philosophy and science (and played some games and wrote some poetry) while drinking diluted wine. These excluded women, slaves, and the poor, reflecting Greek society. Only wealthy, land-owning men had voting rights, and Greeks often indulged themselves.
The Romans inherited the Greeks' elitism around wine---while everyone could drink it, fine wines were a sign of wealth and status. Alcohol was also prevalent in religion. The first farming groups worshipped the gods for tur\kern0.05pt\relax ning wet grain into beer, and Christians drink wine because of its symbolism around Jesus's first miracle. Islam, however, forbade drinking wine. Nonetheless, Arab scholars in Cordoba discovered distillation, a way of making very strong alcoholic drinks by evaporating out and collecting alcohol from beer and wine. This lubricated the slave trade, giving a ``universal'' currency for slaves that could be obtained from those same slaves' labor. On the same ships, sailors could enjoy ample brandy, rum, and whisky without having to worry about overloading the cargo. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, spirits continued to symbolize oppression. The British heavily taxed spirits and their ingredients (especially harmful because spirits were a part of colonial life), directly causing the American Revolution. The Americans then taxed themselves on the same thing, causing the Whisky Rebellion, and made unfair deals with Native Americans for distilled alcohol.
Since the enlightenment, however, caffeine has been the drug of choice. Much like diluted wine in the Greek symposia, coffee was preferred because it promoted clarity of thinking. Like spirits, coffee also comes from the Middle East. However, to prevent a trade monopoly, Europeans established coffee plantations in the South America and Oceania through their respective empires. In the home country, coffeehouses started to appear. Coffeehouses aided scientific development, as demonstrated by Newton deciding to publish after having a conversation in a coffehouse, and social change, as demonstrated by the start of the French Revolution. Tea's spread mirrored coffee's. England, as an empire, constructed trade routes with China, and one of the goods sent back was tea. Tea was expensive, so Britain relied on the British East India Company (BEIC) to deal with the East---which the and cheapened tea to the point that commoners could drink it. %I'm missing something
With tea's reduced price, Britain became enamored with tea, creating a new space more egalitarian than the coffehouse---the tea garden. It allowed men and women to drink tea together and confabulate. At the same time, the BEIC fought China over opium: they forced China into opening their ports to reduce the trade imbalance caused by tea buying. While the colonialist regimes of Europe faded away, the U.S.~came to power, and employed the same type of imperalism as the BEIC. Cola, originally developed by Coca-Cola, is a symbol of that imperialistic capitalism. It had a rocky start in a very capitalist way (people stole the idea of Coca-Cola), but it eventually stabilized with Asa Candler. Coke cemented its American/imperialist symbolism when it bottled in American military bases, and left those plants to forcefully open up a new market. Those messages were so strong that the French called the Marshal Plan ``Coca-Capitalism.''
\sec{Review} %In 3-5 paragraphs you are to analyze and critique the book.
%Some of the questions you might answer are:
% - Was the book well written?
% - What were the sources of information in the book? Are the sources believable?
% - What was the author's point of view? How do you react to him?
% - What of significance did you lear\kern0.05pt\relax n from the book?
% - Would you recommend the book to others? Why?
%You may add your own thoughts and ideas to your analysis of the book.
{\it A History of the World in Six Glasses} by Tom Standage presents a unique lens through which to view inter\kern0.05pt\relax national relations: beverages. He slightly overinflates the importance of them throughout history, but it's undeniable that they have played a role in inter\kern0.05pt\relax national trade and national cultures. Most cases of this, however, typically occur the other way around---culture, trade, and technology change the drinks we can and want to make. Standage recognizes this, so he often sets it up as a symbiotic relationship. However, he does back up such claims with firsthand evidence wherever possible, especially with historical claims.
In the chapter ``High Spirits, High Seas,'' Standage cites Valentim Fer\kern0.05pt\relax nandes on the Wolofs: ``\thinspace`[They] are drunkards who derive great pleasure from our wine'\thinspace'' \stancite{79}. Where he doesn't cite sources, his wording sounds like he has done enough research to justify making a claim about what historians, for example, think on an issue, so I personally believe his sources. He also doesn't make very many outrageous claims---he usually backs up his claims with some form of reasoning, like his justification of Coca-Cola's inability to enter both the Arab and Israeli markets at the same time. With respect to Coca-Cola and its symbolism of America, he seems to support what Coke has done, with exporting its brand and its product everywhere it can get to. Other than that, he tries to remain impartial and leave the reader to think about the material for themselves. The last sentence of ``Globalization in a Bottle'' was ``Whether you approve of that mixture [of the rise of the US hegemon] or not, you cannot deny the breadth of [Coke's] appeal'' \stancite{189}.
Just because of that fact, I would recommend this book to others. Standage's ability to present logically and neutrally makes this an engaging read, and the information given in it is useful. Like a good story, the organization of the book runs roughly chronologically and divides events topically, so the opium wars are easier to remember and identify motivation of players; in this case, Britain and China. It also ties together technological developments and cultural change well---the development of agriculture meant the development of villages, the development of distillation led to the development of the slave trade, and the development of soda led to the development of Coke.
\biblio
\bye
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