Tom Standage
Author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses
About the Author
Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph. His non-fiction works include show more The Victorian Internet, A History of the World in Six Glasses, An Edible History of Humanity (on the New York Times bestseller list in 2014), and Writing on the Wall: Social Media -- The First 2,000 Years. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Judah Passow/Network Photographers
Works by Tom Standage
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers (1998) — Author — 1,366 copies, 30 reviews
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine (2002) 438 copies, 9 reviews
The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting (2000) 189 copies, 3 reviews
A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next (2021) 108 copies, 5 reviews
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Country (for map)
- UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
- Education
- Oxford University
- Occupations
- journalist
writer
author - Organizations
- The Guardian
The Economist
Members
Reviews
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Standage uses 6 beverages to highlight major changes in history. These beverages were instrumental in affecting the way of life and, in some cases, helped drive economic and political change. These do not include water although it is covered in the introduction and the last chapter. The beverages covered are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and coca cola. This is anecdotal history. Whether these beverages had as much impact as Standage would have us believe is debatable, but the study was interesting and I learned quite a bit about the history of each beverage.… (more)
Enjoyable history of the telegraph, how it was developed, grew, and faded away. The title refers, mainly, to the friendships that grew among telegraphers who got to know each other while transmitting messages, and also to the revolution in communications that was really started by the telegraph. The author pushes this metaphor a bit much in the last several chapters and afterword, though; he should have let the story stand on its own.
After three months, I finally powered through the end. The final third of the book was enjoyable; I'm just disappointed it took that far to really get interesting. Though the first portion wasn't easy to get through, Tom's insight on the future of food availability and its impact on society was interesting and on par with his conclusions in 6 Glasses.
I've never enjoyed history. Names and dates are lost on me, and I struggle to keep everything straight when I'm reading about it. Not so with this book. Standage does a fantastic job of weaving six drinks - beer, wine, run (spirits), coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola - into the major times of human development. Sure, there is a lot of speculation, but the discussion of how each drink impacted culture and habits was enough to keep me turning the pages.
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Statistics
- Works
- 16
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 6,399
- Popularity
- #3,848
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 191
- ISBNs
- 124
- Languages
- 12
- Favorited
- 8
