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 — 1,342 copies
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine (2002) 433 copies
The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting (2000) 186 copies
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
An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
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.
A dry recap of well-trod food history. If you had to read one book to ingest the conventional view, this would be it; but if you're actually interested, you'd be better off reading a few books by authors who are actually *interested* in agriculture.
This is an interesting history of the telegraph. Standage not only examines how it was invented and spread, but the impact it had on how people communicated, the culture of the telegraph industry, and the ways it was used and abused. Throughout, Standage draws parallels between the telegraph and the internet: both revolutionized communication, were optimistically but falsely hailed as facilitators of world peace, were used to facilitate business transactions, and were abused by scammers.
The book was originally written in the late 1990s, so it has a very rosy view of the internet and its possibilities. An afterword was added in 2007 that addressed the dotcom bust, but still paints a positive picture of the internet. It would be interesting to see another afterword now.....
All in all, this is a very interesting and readable book.… (more)
The book was originally written in the late 1990s, so it has a very rosy view of the internet and its possibilities. An afterword was added in 2007 that addressed the dotcom bust, but still paints a positive picture of the internet. It would be interesting to see another afterword now.....
All in all, this is a very interesting and readable book.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 16
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 6,257
- Popularity
- #3,919
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 187
- ISBNs
- 124
- Languages
- 12
- Favorited
- 8
