A History of the World in 6 Glasses: 04/03/22

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage is a book I first skimmed, but didn't review, when it was still a newly published book. It wasn't until my youngest was assigned the book for AP World History that I ended up giving it a proper read.

The drinks included are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola, with water as an epilogue. Each of these drinks provide an entry point to a particular time period and location. Each one contextualizes world history through something humanity still consumes even if founding countries have vanished.

While each chapter, each drink, starts of interesting, the chapters tend to drag. In the early bits there's the history it outlined clearly. The tone is conversational with some thematic puns woven in.

But there's there's also repetition. When the second location or country or era is brought in, many of the same observations are reiterated. If I were to re-read this book I wouldn't do it at the pace we had to read it (or listen to it, as we were listening to the audiobook version). Read at a more sedate pace the repeated details would be interesting on their own.

Four stars

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