Gagandeep in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites

Gagandeep in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites

Gagandeep Singh Book Review A thesis can be defined as something an author tries to prove to their audience.

A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage provides a very brilliant thesis. Tom Standage’s thesis is to inform the audience reading the book about the six vital drinks that helped make up history. He explains this by showing how the drink influenced major events around the globe. He begins with beer which the oldest from the six drinks and ends with the youngest drink Coca-Cola. Standage explains how beer was important in the adoption in agriculture and the beginnings of civilizations.Farming became adapted by people in order to maintain a supply of beer. Farming surpluses allowed people of society to specialize on different activities.

The consumption of beer also helped tip the balance away from the hunting and gathering lifestyle towards a farming and a sedentary lifestyle. This allowed the population to increase in size because there was a more sufficient supply of food and a more reliable food source. Beer was a safer to drink to water because it was made with boiling water.

The high level of vitamin B became a replacement to the decline in the consumption of meat.Egyptians and Mesopotamians both believed that beer was an ancient, god given drink that supported their existence. They also saw it as their religious and cultural identity.

It also had great social importance. Writing was invented in order to record the production and the distribution of beer. Beer became so popular that it was also a form of currency and payment. This displays that beer had growing influence and that it also became a symbol of prosperity.

Ancient Cultures had also used beer in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites and for funerals.Beer also led to the development of tools to collect process and store grain. According to Standage beer helped civilized men because beer created a sedentary lifestyle for them.

Standage depicts the importance of wine in Greece and Rome. Wine was regarded as a universal staple in the Roman and Greek Empire. Wine became the one of the main exports in these empires. Wine also showed class division among people. Wine also became used as a medicine to disinfect wounds and to regulate the humors.

Wine became a symbol of social difference, a mark of wealth and the status of a drinker.Wine wealth and the property owning classes in Athens were classified according to their vineyard holding. Wine use in Roman culture differed from the way it was used in Greece. Wine in Greece was used at symposion, a forum in which the people drank as equals from a shared krater, pursuing pleasure and social enlightenment. In Rome it was used at a convivium which was an opportunity to emphasize social divisions, not to set them aside in alcoholic hazes.

The seating arrangements were also less egalitarian than that of the symposion.Standage displays how spirits played a major role in Colonial America, slavery and the American Revolution. The production of spirits is connected to slavery by playing a central role in the trading of the slaves. African slavers who supplied Europeans with slaves accepted a wide range of items in exchange but the slavers mostly desired to get spirits.

Spirits were used to purchase, subdue, and control the slaves. Spirits were an essential staple in Colonial America because it alleviated stress, hardships, and provided a liquid form of central heating in the harsh freezing winters.Spirits also conveniently relieved stress for the colonists’ dependence on imports from Europe. It was also profitable manufactured item and it was very cheap. The French and Indian War put Britain in debt and thought that Americans should help foot the bill because the war was fought to help and benefit them. The sixpence per gallon on molasses was halved and the govt.

took steps to ensure that the money was collected in full. New England rum distillers led to the opposition of the new rules by organizing a boycott of imports from Britain.The believed it was unfair to be taxed without representation which led to an outbreak. This led to the outbreak of the Famous Revolutionary War and once fighting began rum became the primary drink of the American soldiers. Standage depicts how coffee influences a new age or science and rational thought in Europe. Coffeehouses were very important to the Arab world and Europe.

In the Arab world coffeehouses were hotbeds of gossip, rumor, political debate, and satirical discussion. Europe’s coffeehouses later unctioned as a place for information exchanges for scientists, businessmen, writers, and politicians. It also later became a mailing address. Coffeehouses were the centers of self-education, literary and philosophical speculation, and commercial innovation and in some cases, political fermentation. Coffee introduced and influenced a new age of scientific learning and rational thought in Europe.

Coffeehouses provided a more relaxed atmosphere which helped encourage discussion, speculation, and exchange of ideas. Such discussions also allowed scientist to attempts and try out half-formed theories and ideas.It was in coffeehouses that science and commerce became intertwined. The use of coffee in society was different from previous beverages because this beverage facilitates exchange and cooperation with the risk of the loss of self-control with alcohol. Coffee remains the drink in which people meet to discuss, develop, and exchange ideas and information with each other.

Standage depicts how tea was an important part of the Industrial Revolution and it played a major role in the Opium trade and war. Tea was an integral part of the Industrial Revolution.Tea kept workers of the Industrial revolution alert on long and tedious shifts and improved their concentration where operating fast moving machinery. Tea became the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly. The popularity of tea also stimulated commerce by boosting demand for crockery and bringing into being a flourishing new industry.

Tea was connected to the opium trade and the opium war of 1839-1842. Tea was traded for silver and the price of silver was rising more quickly than the price of tea which ate into teas profit.Opium like silver was also a valuable commodity.

So the East Indian Company tried to increase the production of opium in order to use it in the place of silver to buy tea. This however was stopped when the Chinese put a ban on opium and therefore the Opium war began which lasted from 1839-1842. Europeans became furious because of the ban of Opium. The Chinese were soon defeated due to the superiority of European weapons and were forced into signing a peace treaty that opened five ports for the free trades of any goods.Standage explains how Coca-Cola influenced the World War II, Cold War and America. The relationship between Coca-Cola and World War II is that Coca-Cola reminded American soldiers of home and helped the soldiers to maintain morale. Coca-Cola was the major drink of Soldier during the World War II.

During the war Coca-Cola employees established no fewer than sixty-four military bottling plants around the world and they served around ten billion drinks. America servicemen identified this drink with their country and what they believed it stood for.Coca-Cola was thought of by the communists during the Cold War as standing for everything deemed wrong with capitalism, particularly the notion that satisfying consumers’ often trivial demands should be the organizing principle of the economy. Those also regarded the Marshall Plan as imperialism and Coca-Cola provided an obvious target for their anger. I believe there was a huge need for this novel because no one has ever associated the history of the word with six different drinks. Most historians would focus on war and politics which really is that interesting and entertaining.

On the other hand Standage makes reading history a little more interesting. This novel is very interesting and entertaining because it focuses on the six drinks that helped shape up world history which anyone could relate too. Standage had also used a lot of evidence to back up his facts on World History. Standage uses primary and secondary sources throughout the novel. He also lets the readers know what sources he used by informing us about them throughout the novel.

He clearly explains how his evidence relates to his facts. Standage uses many tables, graphs and pictures throughout the novel.Stangade’s pictures add to the text and help clarify what he’s trying to explain. He uses these methods brilliantly. These graphs allow the readers to visualize the text. His pictures, graphs, tables directly relate to the writing and it helps so he doesn’t confuse his audience.

I believe Standage book was brilliant and he did a perfect job entertaining and informing his audience about world history. His novel is easily read and it was very entertaining. He taught me about the real history behind the six major drinks that we drink today.When I pour a cup of tea I now understand how it was originated and how it influenced the world around us. Before when I would drink tea I would never wonder what the history was behind the cup of tea but now after reading Standage book I found it very interesting.

Now I know because I have learned more than I ever thought by reading The History of The World in Six Glasses. The Hisory of the World in Six Glasses is fascinating, interesting, and entertaining. I would recommend this novel to all my peers because it is very appealing.I would recommend his novel to others because it doesn’t solely focus on wars and politics. It focuses on what all of us couldn’t live without which is Six major drinks. This novel is such a novel that can open your mind to learn about the world in which you were never taught about. I am grateful for Standage to writing such a book because the information he taught about the six drinks I never learned about before.

This novel made history interesting and appealing to me. Whenever you decide to drink something you should remember that even if its Coke-Cola, beer, or even Pepsi theirs always history behind it.