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By Randy Zwitch - September 27th, 2009
 Category: Book Review
In addition to “A History of the World in Six Glasses”, “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” by Pietra Rivoli was included in the Semester 1 reading materials that the class received in late July. Interestingly enough, the inclusion of the book was a “mistake” in that the material isn’t going to be covered during the London residency. But knowing that I’d eventually need to read the book, I figured this week was as good a time as any! Of all the things that happened today, clearly the highlight was listening to Mr. Tom Standage deliver a speech on his book “A History of the World in 6 glasses”. For those of you who have kept up with my postings, you’ll know that I quite enjoyed this book, as it delivers the history of the world in a manner that is easy to consume (sadly, pun intended). I also quite enjoy reading the Economist, as my demands for interesting business articles generally exceeds their weekly supply (an economics joke, really?). Today’s speech was phenomenal, especially given that I am also interested in reading the “other” book, “An Edible History of Humanity”. The discussion seamlessly moved between both books, discussing how food and drink can be seen as being integral parts of history, if not the driving force between some cultural institutions such as the transition from hunter/gatherer societies into city/state formation. By Randy Zwitch - August 7th, 2009
Category: Pre-reading: London If it’s Friday night, it must mean…more studying! Tonight, I spent a bit of time reviewing the “rich media” portion of the CCL pre-reading. Here, Profs. Boulding and O’Driscoll have provided a compilation of videos and interactive tools to augment the cultural and anthropological readings. Specifically, the videos focus on two areas: the research of Dr. Jared Diamond on the development and collapse of civilizations, and the two works by Tom Standage on the role of food and drink throughout history. |
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