The Pig War

"The Pig War – The shooting of a hog that almost started World War III" recounts one of the most absurd border disputes in history. In 1859, on San Juan Island (between modern-day Washington State and Vancouver Island), an American farmer shot a pig belonging to a British employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. This single shot escalated into a massive military standoff involving warships, cannons, and thousands of troops from both the US and the British Empire.



Historian Julian Fox details the tense summer where two global superpowers faced off over a dead pig and a patch of potatoes. The book highlights the cooler heads of the commanders on the ground, who refused orders to engage because they didn't want to "involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig."



"The Pig War" is a micro-history of diplomacy on the brink. It illustrates how fragile peace can be and how easily minor local grievances can spiral into international conflicts. It is a funny, yet terrifying, lesson in de-escalation.