animals and civilization

"This inside look at history's most famous animals features wacky verse, cool facts, historical stats, and zany cartoon art"--Amazon.com.

Discusses the influence of fifty different animal species on the medical, edible, commercial, and practical aspects of human civilization.

Relates the stories of different horses throughout the ages, including Bucephalus, the horse that carried Alexander the Great into battle; Seabiscuit, who raised the spirits of Americans during the Great Depression; and more.

Relates the stories of different horses throughout the ages, including Bucephalus, the horse that carried Alexander the Great into battle; Seabiscuit, who raised the spirits of Americans during the Great Depression; and more.

"From ancient empires to modern economics, veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globe--the chicken. Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates' last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it. Throughout the history of civilization, humans have embraced it in every form imaginable--as a messenger of the gods, powerful sex symbol, gambling aid, emblem of resurrection, all-purpose medicine, handy research tool, inspiration for bravery, epitome of evil, and, of course, as the star of the world's most famous joke. In Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?, science writer Andrew Lawler takes us on an adventure from prehistory to the modern era with a fascinating account of the partnership between human and chicken (the most successful of all cross-species relationships). Beginning with the recent discovery in Montana that the chicken's unlikely ancestor is T. rex, this book builds on Lawler's popular Smithsonian cover article, How the Chicken Conquered the World to track the chicken from its original domestication in the jungles of Southeast Asia some 10,000 years ago to postwar America, where it became the most engineered of animals, to the uncertain future of what is now humanity's single most important source of protein. In a masterful combination of historical sleuthing and journalistic exploration on four continents, Lawler reframes the way we feel and think about our most important animal partner--and, by extension, all domesticated animals, and even nature itself. Lawler's narrative reveals the secrets behind the chicken's transformation from a shy jungle bird into an animal of astonishing versatility, capable of serving our species' changing needs. For no other siren has called humans to rise, shine, and prosper quite like the rooster's cry: Cock-a-doodle-doo!"--.

This title is a comprehensive guide to the history of human interaction with the creatures of the earth, air, and water. This book provides historical perspective on mankind's complicated relationship with all creatures, from tiny insects to large beasts.

Traces the history of human-animal relationships and the symbolism associated with it.

Discusses the effects insects have had on history, art, and medicine.

Explores the controversial problem of domesticated animals gone wild, and its impact on people and on the environment.