Super interesting. I suggest keeping a variety of beverages at your disposal while reading.

A compelling read, one that prompts you to stop every few pages, turn to the person next to you, and say "Whoa! Did you know..."

My one critique is that Standage makes no mention of the numerous allegations of human rights abuses against the Coca-Cola Co., though the topic would certainly have been apropos to his discussion of the links between the beverage and the rise of globalization.

Otherwise, I found this to be a well-researched and well-written book. They say "You are what you eat," but Standage makes a pretty convincing case that perhaps, more accurately, we are what we drink.

I wanted to enjoy reading this book more than I did. It is very informative, and the topic -- 6 glasses -- is a creative way to view history. I found it to be very repetitive, however, and the author could have cut the material in half without losing content, especially in the first half of the book (about beer, wine, and spirits). The book became more interesting to me, and less repetitive in the second half (about coffee, tea, and cola) but still would have benefitted from some editing.

کتاب تاریخ جهان در شش لیوان از تام استندج، تاریخ جهان را از خلال بررسی داستان شش نوشیدنی محبوب جهان یعنی آبجو، شراب، قهوه، چای، کوکاکولا و سودا مرور می‌کند و می‌پردازد به اینکه پیدایش و گسترش مصرف آبجو و شراب و نوشیدنی‌های الکلی و چای و قهوه و سودا و محبوب شدن و توزیع گسترده‌ی هر کدام از این‌ نوشیدنی‌ها چه طور روی دور‌ه‌های مشخصی از تاریخ تاثیر گذاشته است.

خلاصه خوانی
۶ آبان ۱۴۰۱

Entertaining and educational - can't ask much more of a book. Well written, interesting and unusual framework for the history of the world as contained in the stories of 6 glasses - beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and colas.

If you are an oldster like me you might remember the classic Late Show hosted by Johnny Carson whose sidekick, Ed Machon would occasionally drop a factoid and Johnny would look at him in astonishment and say "I. Did. Not. Know. That!" Lots of those moments in here as the author examines the process on how the drinks are made, their economic foundations and how they weave into history ranging through Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Quick read which moves right along and well researched. Quite a treat for readers.

Troutdale, January 19th

A very dead-pan fact heavy book, which isn't a bad thing (I mean, don't pick it up thinking it will be a novel type story), but I thought some of the stories could have had more personality or "voice" instead of just a list of what happened. it was very high school text book. Not a good thing to mimic.

I also found multiple sections repeating themselves. It's bad enough that I've had to read 4 pages in order to understand they drank beer out of a huge bowl, but I don't need to be reminded of it in the next section and the next section to complete the total 20 pages talking about one bowl!!!
Also, the typos were distracting! I almost cracked out a red pen and started marking it up!

I've read fact heavy books that also put in some funny stories or jokes and I thought this book had ample opportunities to break it up a little and add some flare to the stories. It would have made it at least read-able if not quite enjoyable.

I am always excited to read a good micro-history, but this one just wasn’t super interesting to me. I think the premise is really creative, and there were a couple of things that stuck with me, but I just found myself getting bored too often reading it.

This was an incredibly well executed piece of historical exploration. A fascinating read about six drinks that have shaped our world, and the influence those drinks have had… somewhat incidentally… on culture, politics, business, etc. Cheers!

If you are looking for a history of the world, this is not the book BUT if you are looking for a wry and different take on how some portions of history evolved, you might want to give this book a try. The author uses six drinks....beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola....to illustrate how trade, colonialism, and financial stability were brought to various parts of the world through the development and influence of these drinks.

It is a fun journey and has some very informative facts about how and why each of these drinks developed. But some of those early iterations, especially beer, would not be recognized in today's world and probably not palatable to modern taste. But water was so polluted even up into the 19th century, that some alternative had to be found . Fermentation or boiling were the answers and certain sicknesses declined rapidly, thus giving some of our six drinks a reputation of "curing all illnesses". I don't imagine the person suffering from a major hangover would agree!!

با این‌که اولش فازم نسبت به کتاب این بود چه مسخره و این دیگه چه اسمیه ولی کتاب جالبی بود برام. مرسی از علی بندری که خلاصه این کتاب رو از blinkist توی قسمت دوم پادکست بی‌پلاس آورد. تیکه ای که من خیلی برام جذاب بود قسمتی بود که در مورد نوشابه و برند کوکاکولا صحبت می‌کنه خیلی جالبه مخصوصا وقتی که در مورد سیاست های سال های دور آمریکا که انزوا طلبانه بوده حرف میزنه و وقتی با دانش هر چند خیلی کمی که دارم در مورد خود سیاست و سیاست های حال حاضر آمریکا مقایسه می‌کنم کلی چیز عجیب میاد توی ذهنم ... به نظرم خوبه که توی وقت بیکاری این اپیزود بی‌پلاس رو گوش بدید و یه نگاهی به نکات کلی این کتاب داشته باشید

Tarihinden bihaber olduğunuzda gerçekten anlaması zor oluyor. Bira neden insanlık tarihi için ateşin keşfi kadar önemli olsun? Şarap neden tüm kutsal kitaplarda ve halen bir çok dini ayinde baş köşede? Neden beraber bir şeyler içmek sosyalleşmenin en iyi yoludur? İçtiğimiz cin-tonik aslında sıtma ilacı mıydı? 10 fıçı rom ile kaç zenci köle alabilirsiniz? Ortaçağda çocuklar neden bira içiyordu? Amerika’nın kuruluşu neden bir çay partisi ile özdeşleşmiş? Alkol müslüman ülkelerde yasak ama neden Amerika, Norveç ve İzlanda gibi ülkelerde de yasaklanmış? Neden Amerika’yı protesto etmek isteyenler yere kola döker? Su için neden savaşı ilan edilir? Ve buna benzer yüzlerce başka soru.

İçki tarihi ile ilgili bir çok kitap okuduğum için bu konularda mütevazi bir bilgi birikimim var. Bu yüzden ilgi ile okuduğum güzel bir eserdi. Kitaptaki her konu ayrı olarak üzerinde ciltlerce kitap okunabilecek derinliğe sahip. Ancak yine de yüzeysel olarak bilgi sahibi olmak için zevkle okunabilecek bir kitap.

Exactly what it sells itself to be, this book felt like just long enough to explore the topic without bogging itself down in too many rabbit trails. A great read as an audiobook.