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simchareads's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.0
There were many aspects of this book I appreciated, but it overall missed the mark for me.
The book attempts to linearly connect ancient civilizations to modern Britain through 6 popularized beverages.
Overall, it was pleasant enough to listen to as an audiobook. I could easily stop & start without forgetting information. I learned some new things.
I think some of the non spoiler issues with the book is (1) the title needed an adjustment because “World History” is entirely misleading, this is a British colonial history regarding how other cultures impacted popularity of certain beverages in this country and (2) this book should have been longer to accommodate more cultural / historical background that was lacking or cut out a few beverages & concentrated on a deeper dive into a few.
Some chapters were much better than others, I was loving this book through the initial (2) sections of beer & wine, despite some issues (Only a handful of sentences about Germany & beer, wine & France?!) because I could see these foreign, ancient connections in the Author’s web… And then it got to be pretty bad rather starkly & I started understanding the online complaints of colonialism when I was through 35% of the book.
The Coca Cola section was WEAK, mostly concentrating on the brand’s patriotic marketing through global wars & I felt like the inclusion of this beverage made the least sense in the totality of this book as it really only talked about the USA.
I was most offended by the coffee chapter, but I formerly worked in coffee imports so I am biased. Central & South America account for 60% of the world’s coffee supply & there is a SINGLE sentence about the Dutch colonists introducing the plant to the region. The bulk of this section is about the impact of coffee houses in Oxford. What the ever-loving…
And my final rambling tangent is this book reads mostly as a British historical book, but occasionally there are sections regarding debates from the Arab world on most of these beverages. Yet there is barely any mention of other impactful cultures or ethnic populations existing within Britain. It just made the book feel more muddled & aimless.
The book attempts to linearly connect ancient civilizations to modern Britain through 6 popularized beverages.
Overall, it was pleasant enough to listen to as an audiobook. I could easily stop & start without forgetting information. I learned some new things.
I think some of the non spoiler issues with the book is (1) the title needed an adjustment because “World History” is entirely misleading, this is a British colonial history regarding how other cultures impacted popularity of certain beverages in this country and (2) this book should have been longer to accommodate more cultural / historical background that was lacking or cut out a few beverages & concentrated on a deeper dive into a few.
Some chapters were much better than others,
The Coca Cola section was WEAK, mostly concentrating on the brand’s patriotic marketing through global wars & I felt like the inclusion of this beverage made the least sense in the totality of this book as it really only talked about the USA.
I was most offended by the coffee chapter, but I formerly worked in coffee imports so I am biased. Central & South America account for 60% of the world’s coffee supply & there is a SINGLE sentence about the Dutch colonists introducing the plant to the region. The bulk of this section is about the impact of coffee houses in Oxford. What the ever-loving…
And my final rambling tangent is this book reads mostly as a British historical book, but occasionally there are sections regarding debates from the Arab world on most of these beverages. Yet there is barely any mention of other impactful cultures or ethnic populations existing within Britain. It just made the book feel more muddled & aimless.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Colonisation
churrocaitie's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.25
This book was a doozy for me. I felt like sometimes Standage went on tangents in the first half of this book, and 3/4 of this book didn’t explain “a history of the world in 6 glasses”…it just explains what some of these drinks were at the time of its creation.
I was looking for more in-depth stories about the impact these drinks had on society, and I was a little disappointed. The last 2 drinks, tea and Coke, went the most in-depth, in my opinion, about its actual impact on trade, war, culture, etc.
I also felt we didn’t get into enough other worldviews on certain drinks…just wished there was more to this book, based on what I thought this was gonna be like. But glad I read it!
I was looking for more in-depth stories about the impact these drinks had on society, and I was a little disappointed. The last 2 drinks, tea and Coke, went the most in-depth, in my opinion, about its actual impact on trade, war, culture, etc.
I also felt we didn’t get into enough other worldviews on certain drinks…just wished there was more to this book, based on what I thought this was gonna be like. But glad I read it!
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism, Drug use, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Slavery, War, and Xenophobia
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