About this title: Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quenchthirst. According to the author of "The Victorian Internet," six of them havehad a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming thedefining drink during a pivotal historical period.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. Hardcover w / dustjacket. First edition copy. Number line with "1". Like new; no internal markings; has lost its "Brand New" shine but no obvious defects. DJ like new; no priceclip; very mild edgewear. 92509. No remainder mark. In sealed plastic protection. 2005. Hardcover w / dustjacket. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Walker & Co
Date Published: 2006-05-10
ISBN-13:9780802715524ISBN:0802715524
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780802715524. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Walker & Co
Date Published: 2005-05-30
ISBN-13:9780802714473ISBN:0802714471
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780802714473. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Walker & Company
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780802714473ISBN:0802714471
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Walker and Company, New York, NY
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780802714473ISBN:0802714471
Description: Near Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo. viii, 310 pp. Bound in black boards in white dust wrapper printed in black. Black and white illustrations. Near Fine, bump to top edge of front cover, in Fine dust wrapper. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. read more
Description: Good. Only lightly used. Book has minimal wear to cover and binding. A few pages may have small creases and minimal underlining. Book selection as BIG as Texas. read more
"First off, let me just say that if the concept of this book interests you, by all means you should read it. It's light and breezy, and you stand to lose very little by taking the time. However, I have to say that my feelings about this book are very conflicted. In terms of quality, the book is clearly delineated into two halves: the half discussing alcoholic drinks, and the half discussing caffeinated drinks. Throughout the first portion of the book, which focuses on beer, wine, and spirits, I was a bit bored, and found myself becoming frustrated at how repetitive Standage's writing could be. It seemed like there just wasn't enough substance to back up Standage's claims of how dramatically these beverages had impacted human history, and the facts and arguments he did provide were often repeated in subtly different ways throughout a given section. I was still interested in the material of this half of the book, I just didn't find it particularly compelling. The second half, by contrast, really delivered on the promise of the book's thesis, and it's pretty obvious why. Standage is an editor for The Economist, and it's clear reading this book that economics is what he feels most comfortable writing about. His discussions of the impacts of the British tea trade, in particular, were extremely interesting. Indeed, Standage finds it difficult to conceal his British biases, as the most in-depth and interesting parts of this book exclusively discuss British culture. The only thing that detracted from my enjoyment of the second half of this book was the way that Standage's own personal socioeconomic views seeped into the section on Coca-Cola, so that by the end it started reading like a pro-free-trade pamphlet. It's nothing that some good editing couldn't have fixed, and it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth (ha, ha) as I finished the book. Still, overall, well worth the read, and it's certainly made me curious about a lot of aspects of history that I'd never even contemplated before."
"A neat way to review some interesting quirks of the past x-thousand years of cultural history, in a largely light-hearted fashion. News of the coffee bean's triumphant flight to South America at the hands of a Dutch master thief, or China's reluctance to accept the tea tree from the double-crossing Limeys, makes for interesting reading. Is coffee the source of all of modern western society? Unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to remember that the London stock exchange was once just a cafe called Jonathan's, which was better suited to serving mocha frappucinos."
"I thought it was a pretty entertaining, poppy non-fiction read until the last chapter, where it turns into a weird commercial for Coca Cola and free market capitalism. I guess that's what I get for reading a book written by a staff writer at the Economist.
Up until that point, it was a pretty neat idea - a survey of world history as seen through the predominant beverage of the time. For most of human history drinking water hasn't been safe, and humans have found ways to drink that were safer (and more delicious). The book starts with the first agrarian societies who made beer, the Greeks and later Romans who developed philosophy and trade and the Wine that they drank, then the Spirits (notably Rum) that fueled the transatlantic slave trade, followed by the Coffee houses of the enlightenment, the British empire of Tea, and finally the American globalization represented by Coca-Cola (which Standage doesn't take much pain to hide he thinks is terrific).
It's a light read, and should only take 1 or 2 days. It's well written, for the most part, and recommended to anyone looking for quick and light non-fiction."
"With so many people walking around with their soda bottles or Starbucks cups, it's easy to forget that these drinks and others have held more historical impact than most realize. I discovered this book at a really boring AP training and finally got around to reading it. Standage provides a look at world history through the influence of six of the most famous man-made beverages: beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee and Coca-Cola. Although each section only gives a surface view of each historical era from the beer-making of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the wine-inspired Greek philosophical debates to coffee-induced Enlightenment to the global reach of Coca-Cola, Standage shows the connection between these drinks and the innovations, ideas and empire they helped established. I found it to be an interesting juxtoposition between tea's influence in Chinese dynasty and British Empire and the American empire of the 20th century and the global reach of Coke. Delving from a civilizational focus to a personal one, it is ifunny to see how historical stereotypes hold up, particularly those between the beer-guzzling working class to the wine snobs of the chattering class."
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