Brews You Can Use II

There's an intriguing new book out: A History of the World in Six Glasses. It's about, yup, drinking, but not just alcohol. Here's an excerpt from the author's page that explains the theme better than we can:

Just as archaeologists divide history into different periods based on the use of different materials -- the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, and so on -- it is also possible divide world history into periods dominated by different drinks. Six drinks in particular -- beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola -- chart the flow of world history. Three contain alcohol and three contain caffeine, but what they all have in common is that each drink was the defining drink during a pivotal historical period, from antiquity to the present day.

Link.