Regular readers know that I participate in Amazon.com's Associates program (see the recommendations in the right side bar). Checking my reports tonight, I noticed that somebody who placed an order through my site had bought a couple of books that look interesting. First, Tom Standage's A History Of The World In Six Glasses. Sandage is the technology editor of The Economist, which is the only weekly news magazine worthy of the name (IMHO). Here's the Publishers Weekly review from Amazon:
Standage starts with a bold hypothesis—that each epoch, from the Stone Age to the present, has had its signature beverage—and takes readers on an extraordinary trip through world history. The Economist's technology editor has the ability to connect the smallest detail to the big picture and a knack for summarizing vast concepts in a few sentences. He explains how, when humans shifted from hunting and gathering to farming, they saved surplus grain, which sometimes fermented into beer. The Greeks took grapes and made wine, later borrowed by the Romans and the Christians. Arabic scientists experimented with distillation and produced spirits, the ideal drink for long voyages of exploration. Coffee also spread quickly from Arabia to Europe, becoming the "intellectual counterpoint to the geographical expansion of the Age of Exploration." European coffee-houses, which functioned as "the Internet of the Age of Reason," facilitated scientific, financial and industrial cross-fertilization. In the British industrial revolution that followed, tea "was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly." Finally, the rise of American capitalism is mirrored in the history of Coca-Cola, which started as a more or less handmade medicinal drink but morphed into a mass-produced global commodity over the course of the 20th century. In and around these grand ideas, Standage tucks some wonderful tidbits—on the antibacterial qualities of tea, Mecca's coffee trials in 1511, Visigoth penalties for destroying vineyards—ending with a delightful appendix suggesting ways readers can sample ancient beverages.
Second, Elin McCoy's The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste. (I've blogged about the validity of the notion of national palates and, of course, a number of Parker's books are on my wine canon.) Here's the Booklist review from Amazon's site:
Wine critic Robert Parker, explains McCoy in this engaging new biography, is "the most powerful critic in any field, period." Parker's initial role was as a skeptic and consumer advocate, a kind of Ralph Nader of the wine world; one aspect of his straight-shooting approach was his now-celebrated 100-point scale for rating wine. But after more than a quarter-century of publication, Parker's newsletter has inevitably and ironically become the voice of the establishment, and Parker himself has come under attack for dogmatically imposing his tastes upon the wine-drinking public. More broadly, as McCoy shows, the influence of American consumers and critics on the world wine industry (traditionally dominated by the French) has grown by leaps and bounds. It is in tackling these broader themes that McCoy really shines: Parker as a man is mostly remarkable for his ordinariness, and McCoy occasionally overreaches in trying to dramatize the quotidian. She tells the larger story with panache and fairness, though, and has written a book that every oenophile should read.
I've decided both look worth picking up.
