A History of the World in Six Glasses - Rilegato

Standage, Tom

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0385660863 ISBN 13: 9780385660860

Casa editrice: Doubleday Canada, 2005

Riassunto

Whatever your favourite tipple, when you pour yourself a drink, you have the past in a glass.

You can likely find them all in your own kitchen — beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, cola. Line them up on the counter, and there you have it: thousands of years of human history in six drinks.

Tom Standage opens a window onto the past in this tour of six beverages that remain essentials today. En route he makes fascinating forays into the byways of western culture: Why were ancient Egyptians buried with beer? Why was wine considered a “classier” drink than beer by the Romans? How did rum grog help the British navy defeat Napoleon? What is the relationship between coffee and revolution? And how did Coca-Cola become the number one poster-product for globalization decades before the term was even coined?

Su questo libro

Recensione:

“Ingenious. . . . [Standage] combines a lively writing style with a wonderful collection of anecdotes. . . . His book sparkles like champagne.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)

“A wonderful synthesis of the march of time. Standage has that uncanny ability so rare in a writer to connect the smallest details to sweeping changes in history.”
—Financial Post

“Standage’s bright idea really is bright. . . . Far from being frivolous, the author has legitimate points to make. . . [He] manages to be incisive, illuminating and swift.”
—The New York Times

“Standage’s historical division works fantastically well. His history of the technology and culture of quenching our thirst is a thought-provoking look at what we drink today and how it offers insight into our past.”
—The Toronto Star

“Lucid [and] energetic. . . . In A History of the World in Six Glasses, Standage reaches beyond the commonplace to uncover universal significance. . . . Entertaining [and] thought-provoking.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

"Standage starts with a bold hypothesis — that each epoch, from the Stone Age to the present, has had its signature beverage — and takes readers on an extraordinary trip through world history. The Economist's technology editor has the ability to connect the smallest detail to the big picture and a knack for summarizing vast concepts in a few sentences. In and around these grand ideas, Standage tucks some wonderful tidbits — on the antibacterial qualities of tea, Mecca's coffee trials in 1511, Visigoth penalties for destroying vineyards -- ending with a delightful appendix suggesting ways readers can sample ancient beverages."
—Publishers Weekly

"Technology historian Standage follows the flow of civilization as humanity guzzles a half-dozen prime beverages. He offers a distilled account of civilization founded on the drinking habits of mankind from the days of hunter-gatherers to yesterday's designer thirst-quencher. History, along with a bit of technology, etymology, chemistry and bibulous entertainment. Bottoms up!"
—Kirkus

Praise for Tom Standage:
“Fascination, obsession, inquiry, storytelling, and literary magic at its best.”
—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World

“Standage is a terrific writer.”
—The New York Times Book Review
From the Trade Paperback edition.

L'autore:

Tom Standage is the technology correspondent for The Economist. His previous books include The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s On-Line Pioneers and The TURK: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine. He lives with his wife and daughter in Greenwich, England.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Doubleday Canada
• Data di pubblicazione: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0385660863
• ISBN 13: 9780385660860
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 320