🏺 A History of the World in 6 Glasses

πŸ§‰ Formating

==Big Idea== - red highlight

@@PE (political, economical)@@ - orange highlight

CS (cultural, social) - yellow highlight

%%IE (innovative, environmental)%% - green highlight

cause β†’ effect

word <- definition

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Short on time? The introduction is a summary of the rest of the book.

🍼 Introduction: Vital Fluids

  • Importance of Water in Past
    • A long time ago (150,000 years to civilization) β†’ humans confined to rivers
    • storing was impractical
    • Other beverages emerged β†’ had to be made deliberately (unlike water)
    • ==Water was disease filled== β†’ different beverages were not
    • many uses
      • @@currencies@@
      • religious rites
      • @@political symbols@@
      • philosophical + artistic inspiration
      • @@highlight power + status of elite@@
      • @@subjugate + appease lessers@@
      • celebrate births
      • grieve deaths
      • forge + strengthen social bonds
      • @@seal business transactions + treaties@@
      • sharpen senses
      • dull the mind
      • %%use in medicine%%
      • %%use as poison%%
    • Each drink became popular when:
    • ==met a need OR aligned w historical trend==
  • Path toward modernity (Beer)
    • adoption of farming
    • Near East 10k years ago β†’ domestication of cereal (wheat etc.) grains
      • β†’ rudimentary beer
    • growth from civilizations
    • organized agricultural large scale β†’ surplus
      • surplus of grain β†’ more beer
      • acted as a normal drink +
      • freed workers β†’ specialization
      • @@wages paid in bread + beer@@ (cereal grains)
  • Preliminary Western thought (Wine)
    • Greeks
    • advances in philosophy + politics + science + literature
      • spread worldwide through wine trade on seas
      • discussed at symposia (formal drinking parties)
    • Romans
    • hierarchy reflected in wine style
    • Christianity β†’ wine part of ritual
    • Islam β†’ wine banned
  • Exploration and Expansion (Spirits) [aka brandy, rum, whiskey, etc.]
    • Global sea routes
    • European wanted to expand
    • %%Distilled drinks β†’ alcohol at sea%%
    • @@Currency@@
    • slave trade
    • @@establishing USA@@
  • Age of Reason (Coffee)
    • coffee houses
    • new %%scientific%% + @@political@@ + @@economic@@ theories
    • different from taverns
    • encouraged clear thinking
    • scientific societies + newspapers + financial institutions + revolutions
  • Trade with the East (Tea)
    • foundations for @@imperialism@@ + %%industrialization%%
    • @@open trade routes@@ from popularity in Britain
    • Britain as a global superpower
    • need to tea
    • demand β†’ British @@foreign policy@@
      • @@independence@@ of @@USA@@
      • @@less power@@ in @@China@@
      • @@production@@ in @@India@@
  • America’s National Drink (Coca-Cola)
    • @@consumer capitalism@@ β†’ @@US@@ into superpower
    • invented as a medical pick-me-up
    • with American armed forces around the world
    • symbol of @@single global marketplace@@
    • world’s most widely know product

🍺 Beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt

🦴 A Stone-Age Brew

πŸ¦– A Pint of Prehistory

  • migration of humans out of Africa
    • 50k years ago
    • small bands
    • lived in ==temporary homes== β†’ caves, huts, tents
    • ==seasonal== food supply
  • %%Agricultural revolution%%
    • 12k years ago
    • settled into @@villages@@ β†’ cities β†’ empires
    • also developed new %%technologies%%
  • Barley + wheat
    • before could only drink water/animal products
    • Don’t know when invented
    • no beer before 10k BCE
      • common at 4k BCE
    • Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) depicting two people drinking beer through long straws, found in Khafajeh, Iraq, ca. 2600–2350 BCE, via Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
    • ancient beer has grains + chaff β†’ needed straw in order to drink
    • A pictogram from a seal found at Tepe Gawra in Mesopotamia dating from around 4000 BCE. It shows two figures drinking beer through straws from a long pottery jar.
  • nomadic β†’ settled lifestyle
  • increase in social complexity β†’ ==emergence of cities==

πŸ”Ž The Discovery of Beer

  • discovered

    • gathering of wild grain around end of last Ice Age
    • 10k BCE in Fertile Crescent
      • Fertile Crescent region
    • ideal environment for sheep + goats + cattle + pigs + barley
    • first established large scale settlements
    • ==reliable source of food==
  • Grain usage

    • can’t eat raw
    • edible by crushing + mixing with water
    • </li>
    1. made with soup β†’ %%thickener%%
    • <ul>
    • fish + nuts + berries + water
  • plaster + bitumen-lined basket
  • hot stones dropped in
  • grains have starch β†’ absorb moisture and burst
    • thickening soup
  • %%Stored%%
  • stores for weeks/months/years
    • do not recommend
  • could be made with soup or eaten on own
    • gruel
  • β†’ development of tools to store grain
    • guard against %%famine%%


  • %%Innovations with grain%%

    • flint-bladed sickles β†’ harvesting
    • woven baskets β†’ carrying
    • stone hearths β†’ drying
    • underground pits β†’ storing
    • grindstones β†’ processing


  • β†’ ==encouraged people to stay in one place==

    • 1960s experiment (archeologists are nerds)
    • using flint-bladed sickle ==harvested 2 pounds of grain in 1 hour== of wild grains in Turkey
      • family working 8 hours a day x 3 weeks = ==each member gets a pound a day for a year==
    • ==had to stay near wild cereal== β†’ not miss best harvest time
    • would not want to leave ==unguarded==


  • ==β†’ first permanent settlements==

    • East Mediterranean coast 10k BCE
    • round huts + wooden roofs
      • hearth + stone floor + 4-5 yards wide
    • village ~ 50 huts β†’ 200/300 people


  • %%grain properties (1) β†’ sugar%%

    • soaked in water β†’ %%sprouted β†’ tasted sweet%%
    • storage pits not watertight
    • diastase %%enzymes β†’ starch β†’ sugar or malt%%
    • barley produces most β†’ tastes sweetest
    • not a lot of sweet things β†’ highly valued
    • %%deliberate malting%% β†’ grain soaked then dried


  • %%grain properties (2) β†’ Beer%%

    • gruel left out %%β†’ slightly fizzy + pleasantly intoxicating%%
    • not first alcohol found
    • fruit juice ferments β†’ wine
      • seasonal + perishes easily
      • could not be stored without pottery (6k BCE)
    • water + honey β†’ mead
      • limited qualities of wild honey
      • could not be stored without pottery
    • ==β†’ made reliably + quantity + when needed==
    • brewed in
      • pitch-lined baskets
      • hollowed out trees
      • Sahti beer (made in Finland) tradition
      • large shells
      • 19th century Amazon basin was most recent
      • stone vessels
    • %%quality improved through trial + error%%
    • stronger beer <-
      • more malted grain in gruel
      • longer left to ferment
      • throughly cooking gruel
      • malting converts 15% of starch β†’ boiled β†’ more enzymes transform β†’ more starch into sugar β†’ more alcohol
      • same container for brewing
      • mash tubs in Mesopotamia
      • yeast cultures in containers in cracks
        • didn’t need to rely on wild yeast
      • adding berries + honey + spices + herbs + flavorings β†’ taste different
    • types of beer
    • Ancient Egyptian 17 kinds of beer β†’ long names of great importance
    • religious ceremonies have special names
    • Ancient Mesopotamia >20 kinds of beer β†’ controlled taste by adding %%bappir%%
      • bappir <- beer-bread
      • sprouted barely β†’ small loaves β†’ baked twice β†’ dark + crunchy unleavened bread
      • stored for years
      • kept in government storehouses
        • only eaten in food shortages
    • debate over beer vs. bread vs. gruel
    • archeologists argue
      • beer as an offshoot of bread or bread as an offshoot of beer
      • <- from the first breads being bappir
    • author’s assumption: %%both bread + beer from gruel%%
      • thick gruel + sun β†’ flatbread
      • thin gruel + time β†’ beer

    πŸ˜΅β€πŸ’« Under the Influence of Beer?

    • historical evidence
      • writing was not invented β†’ no written records for cultural + social impact
      • inferred from later traditions that continued
    • social drink
      • sumerian depictions β†’ shared vessel
      • was possible at time to filter + pottery β†’ served individually
      • ritual persisted even though not needed
      • unlike food β†’ beverage shared
      • cutting up meat β†’ some have desirbale
      • sharing drink β†’ trusted
      • clinking of glasses
    • magical drink
      • fermentation + effects β†’ magic
      • connected to gods
      • Egypt β†’ Osiris
    • religious ceremonies
      • every religious ritual β†’ America + Africa + Eurasia
      • Inca β†’ chicha (beer) to ground or rising sun
      • Aztec β†’ pulque to Mayahuel
      • China β†’ beers from millet + rice

    🌱 Beer and Farming, the seeds of Modernity

    • beer β†’ %%adoption of agricultural%%
      • up for debate
      • beer discovered β†’ socially + ritually important β†’ desire to have more
      • one of many factors
    • %%vitamin help%%
      • long term storage β†’ would have been drunken earlier β†’ low alochol high yeast
      • vitamin D β†’ need less meat
    • ==safer to drink than water==
      • contaminated
    • communal storehouses
      • storing + ritual β†’ intertwined β†’ recorded in clay tokens β†’ priests live off
      • %%β†’ autocracy, writing, bureaucracy%%

    πŸŒ† Civilized Beer

    πŸ›ž The Urban Revolution

    • Mesopotamia β†’ most farmers
      • banded together for many factors β†’ rise of urban working population
      • invasions?
    • made possible by agricultural surplus
      • freeded admin + craftsman
      • funded public works
      • edible money

    πŸ§‘ The Drink of the Civilized Man

    • Sumer (S Mesopotamia)
      • writing emerged 3.4k BCE
      • Epic of Gilgamesh
      • primitive nature of Enkidu β†’ shown lack of familiarity w bread and beer
      • ^^saw as made fully human^^
      • drunkness seen humorous
    • Egypt
      • beer in pyramid texts
      • Ra + Hathor
      • disapproval of drunkeness
      • unrepresentative of any career besides scribe

    πŸͺΆ The Origins of Writing

    • earliest documents
      • tax reciptes + wage lists w beer
    • @@neohilitic socialism β†’ control over economy@@
      • record what was going out β†’ writing
      • different shapes β†’ different standard amounts
      • primary source of food β†’ 3k to 4k calories
    • Cuneiform
      • pictographs became more abstract

    πŸͺ™ Liquid Wealth and Health

    • redistributed to fund public works
      • sumerian temple work force β†’ sila of beer a day (one liter)
      • junoir officals β†’ 2 silas; higher court β†’ 3 silas; highest officals β†’ 5 silas
      • ^^example of social hierachy discovered through beer^^
      • extra used to tip messengers + scribes + pay
    • ^^wedding rituals^^
      • bride price β†’ groom to bride
      • women + childern recived + refugees + soliders + policemen + scribes
    • pyramid workers in Egypt paid in beer
      • pyramids built by state employees β†’ collected grain + redistburted it as payment
    • ^^bread + beer β†’ word for food in general^^
      • also daily greeting
      • banquet β†’ place of bread + beer
    • pharmacopoeia β†’ list of medical recipes based on beer
      • oldest use of alcohol in medicine
    • egypt β†’ afterlife
      • depended on having beer

    🍷 Wine in Greece and Rome

    The Delight of Wine

    • demonstrat power + weatlth β†’ wine part of
      • as opposed to tradiotnal beer
      • prev only availble in small amount
      • transpot x10
        • only elite could drink
    • comparsion to beer
      • scoial seperation
      • main use relgious β†’ creation of reliious rituals
      • wine β†’ propganda of power
      • prosperity + privlede
    • how made
      • eurasian grape vines + avialibitl of cereal vrops + invention of potery
      • fremented juice of crushed grapes
      • 5.4k BCE
      • bliblical story of noah β†’ relgious connection
    • spread
      • egypt early rulers (king scorpionn I) β†’ 700 jars of wine
      • original greek gods drank necter (mead) β†’ then wine got more popular
      • introduced later
      • dinoysus
      • accesss to wine as mark fo status
      • ashurnasirpal + shalmanser β†’ social + rel beverage
    • avaiblity grew
      • volume of wine traded over sea β†’ more avilable
      • larger empires β†’ fewer borders to tax and trade
      • volume go up, prices go down β†’ peasents oculd drink
      • desired tribute offfering β†’ wine rations
    • expanding
      • hard to transport over land β†’ boats carried
      • could not go upstream β†’ broken up and sold
      • still expensive β†’ date palm wine became popular intstead (fermented date syrup)
    • assumpitions
      • that one and the other β†’ rather both at same time
    • greek thinkers β†’ rational inqury (test one though t agisnt the other)
      • democrayc + philsoophy + scientific method + legal system + athletics
      • superitoy over forgegineers
    • symposia
      • venues of discussion β†’ reminder how cilvizied they were
      • Symposium β†’ is singluare version
      • manner of grecian approval
    • dinoysus
      • fled to greece to escape beer mediterraien
      • creaated beer for benfit of mediterrian
      • greece wince availble to everyone
    • geography
      • ideal for viticulutre
      • scientifc approach
      • wine press
      • neat rows
    • switched to industrial farming
      • commerial farming
      • x20 from growing wine vs grain
        • captialism modern
    • social heriachy
      • soical status basee don vineyard ho.dings
    • 9iamgery/importantce
      • greek coinds
      • targets of peloponesian war between athens = sparta
    • type
      • everyone drank wine β†’ type mattered
      • local/demositc β†’ start of CC/copyright fro distinction
      • older >>>
    • drinkign style
      • mix w water
      • </li>

    πŸ₯ƒ Spirits in the Colonial Period

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    β˜•οΈ Coffee in the Age of Reason

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    πŸ«– Tea and the British Empire

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    πŸ₯€ Coca-Cola and the Rise of America

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