Download The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant that Took Over the World AudioBook Free
"[An] unfailingly educational background of tea... An absorbing read."-Kirkus
From Darjeeling to Lapsang Souchon, from India to Japan-a fresh, concise, world-encompassing exploration of just how tea has designed politics, culture, and the surroundings throughout history. In the fourth century BC in China, where it was used as an assist in Buddhist meditation, to the Boston Tea Get together in 1773, to its present-day role as the most consumed substance on earth, the humble Camellia plant has had profound effects on civilization. Renowned cultural anthropologist Alan MacFarlane and Iris MacFarlane recount the annals of tea from its origin in the eastern Himalayas and talks about, among other things, how tea became the world's most common craving, how tea was used as a musical instrument of imperial control, and how the cultivation of tea drove the professional revolution. Both an absorbing narrative and a remarkable tour of a few of the world's great cultures-Japan, China, India, France, the Britain, and others-The Empire of Tea brings into distinct focus one of the forces that shaped background.
From Darjeeling to Lapsang Souchon, from India to Japan-a fresh, concise, world-encompassing exploration of just how tea has designed politics, culture, and the surroundings throughout history. In the fourth century BC in China, where it was used as an assist in Buddhist meditation, to the Boston Tea Get together in 1773, to its present-day role as the most consumed substance on earth, the humble Camellia plant has had profound effects on civilization. Renowned cultural anthropologist Alan MacFarlane and Iris MacFarlane recount the annals of tea from its origin in the eastern Himalayas and talks about, among other things, how tea became the world's most common craving, how tea was used as a musical instrument of imperial control, and how the cultivation of tea drove the professional revolution. Both an absorbing narrative and a remarkable tour of a few of the world's great cultures-Japan, China, India, France, the Britain, and others-The Empire of Tea brings into distinct focus one of the forces that shaped background.
