Term paper
Final Essay
British journalist Tom Standage neglected the classical model of archaeologists, who divide the world into periods of history (Stone Age, Bronze Age, etc.) and offered his own version. The author of this book divided history into six main periods with help of beverages. Humanity, starting with the use of homemade beer has come to international red and white logo of ” Coca-Cola”. Author around each drink is trying to build a whole theory, to bind the general trends of human development, to identify significance. Telling about the beer, the author informs that in one of the Egyptian myths beer is credited with saving humanity from destruction. Although the first beer was not brewed – it was open. A second drink humanity – also alcoholic – is a wine. It’s not possible to imagine a world of ancient Greece and Rome without wine. Thanks to wine philosophical schools were created, the cultural life was somehow connected with wine. Moreover, since then the wine is considered to be the most civilized and cultural drink.
And then came the era of great geographical discoveries, and wine was replaced by strong alcoholic beverages. One of the main roles in this period played the rum – the result of the distillation of sugarcane. Rum became the currency. So, on slaveholding coast of Africa the rum could be exchanged even for gold. By the end of the 18th century in North America whiskey has been gaining increasing popularity, which has not less impressive story, in which has place the first protest against the taxation. Even the first president of the United States after retiring, himself founded a factory for the production of this popular product.
However, the discovery of the New World provoked discovery not only strong drinks but also that without which does not start the morning – coffee. In the 17th century the owners of taverns and wine merchants, as well as physicians actively opposed the coffee, giving it the poisonous properties, calling the ” syrup of soot.” But eventually there was created culture of coffee consumption as a beverage, concomitant to business meetings, scientific conferences, or a little rest in a summer cafe. The next chapter is about tea. Many centuries tea remained the eastern drink. In the early 18th century, in the UK nobody drank tea, but in the end – it became extremely popular. The popularity of tea has stimulated demand for crockery, moreover, according to the author, in the history of tea were reflected the scope and power of the British Empire.
The sixth beverage today can be found on every corner – Coca-Cola. It started its history since the mid-19th century, when a pharmacist from Atlanta accidentally stumbled upon a combination of ingredients, creating a cure for headaches. To date, Coca-Cola became the symbol of a globalized world, a symbol of the ” American way of life” today ” Coca-Cola” – a 3% of the total fluid intake in the world.
This or that beverage, following by evidences of Standage, in its period was the embodiment of the manners and customs. And the abundance of details and facts make ” history of the world in six glasses” entertaining journey into the past and present of mankind.
In the universe, says David Christian, on the one hand, acts the second law of thermodynamics, according to which everything tends from order to chaos, but on the other – operates a kind of creative power, which results in a variety of such complex forms of living beings, that it cannot cause confusion and a sense of paradox. From the moment of the Big Bang development of the Universe occurred from simple to complex, from formations sized smaller than an atom, to protons and leptons, to the formation of elements of hydrogen and helium, clouds of these substances and, finally, the emergence of stars. Then in the universe emerged chemical elements, formed celestial bodies.
The next important stage is the appearance of the DNA, each helix of which carries information about the creation of living organisms. The strength and weakness of DNA – its imperfection. That’s why when you copy it sometimes malfunctions occur. DNA in the learning process creates a variety of complex living organisms. And what has turned out, we are witnessing the last 4 billion years.
People appeared on Earth about 200, 000 years ago, and this is another step in the complication of the universe. They endowed with speech, can share knowledge, transmit information from generation to generation and form a so-called collective intelligence. People also have the ability to collectively accumulate knowledge and experience. That’s why the human species is creative and so powerful.
The next important step occurred when people learned how to cultivate the land (about 10 thousand years ago). Then the human population has increased dramatically. Community of people has become more, tighter, connection between them – closer. These relationships became even closer around 500 years ago with the development of navigation, and more – with the advent of trains, the telegraph, the Internet. And now we represent a kind of global brain, which consists of nearly 7 billion units. And the brain is trained with unprecedented speed.
During the last 200 years energy growth has occurred due to the invention of fuel. Fuel and collective accumulation of experience have led to what we now see. People play in the history the amazing and creative role. But we burn fuel with such speed that simply undermines those favorable conditions, which allowed human civilization to flourish over the past 10, 000 years. This story shows us the nature of our complexity and fragility, as well as the dangers that threaten us, also the possibilities of collective accumulation of experience and our common opportunities.
Works cited
David Christian. “ This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity.”
Tom Standage. “ A History of the World in 6 Glasses.”
