I thought the author of "The History of the World in 6 Glasses," had an interesting approach to world history. The connection to civilization and beer was never in my mind. I think he makes many compelling arguments and his logic is fairly sound. I do have some hesitations. The first would be that most of the substance of the first two chapters, however logical they are, are still in essence speculative. As he points out in the book, the writing he deals with in these chapters are cuneiform and hieroglyphics. Although beer played an important role in the cultures of the time period in which the sources are taken from, it is still in the realm of speculation to assume that it was one of the main factors of the start of civilization. That being said, any arguments on this time period would be speculation and the author does use many sounds arguments that do lead to his conclusion. Thoughts?
FC
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Well, I guess much of the history of this time period, especially that before writing, is prone to speculation. These chapters really did show how important beer was though, with "bread and beer" being a greeting and the essence of sustenance. Sure, beer's true value may feel exaggerated in the book, but since that is what the book is about, other important factors are certain to be left out of the limelight. This certainly is the most scholarly talk I have heard of beer in quite a while, a refreshing change.
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