A History of the World in 100 Animals
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
Fully illustrated in color, a fascinating exploration of the one hundred animals that have had the most profound influence on humanity throughout the ages.
We are not alone. We are not alone on the planet. We are not alone in the countryside. We are not alone in cities. We are not alone in our homes. We are humans and we love the idea of our uniqueness. But the fact is that we humans are as much members of the animal kingdom as the cats and dogs we surround ourselves with, the cows and the fish we eat, and the bees who pollinate so many of our food-plants.
In The History of the World in 100 Animals, award-winning author Simon Barnes selects the one hundred animals who have had the greatest impact on humanity and on whom humanity has had the greatest effect. He shows how we have domesticated animals for food and for transport, and how animals powered agriculture, making civilisation possible. A species of flea came close to destroying human civilisation in Europe, while the slaughter of a species of bovines was used to create one civilisation and destroy another. He explains how pigeons made possible the biggest single breakthrough in the history of human thought. In short, he charts the close relationship between humans and animals, finding examples from around the planet that bring the story of life on earth vividly to life, with great insight and understanding.
The heresy of human uniqueness has led us across the millennia along the path of destruction. This book, beautifully illustrated throughout, helps us to understand our place in the world better, so that we might do a better job of looking after it. That might save the polar bears, the modern emblem of impending loss and destruction. It might even save ourselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wildlife get the spotlight in this intriguing study from journalist Barnes (Ten Million Aliens), an exploration of how humans' interactions with animals shaped history. He posits that the wholesale slaughter of bison in North America in the 19th century, for example, was responsible for the United States becoming "the nation it is today" because it removed a major resource for Native Americans; that a plague spread by fleas in 14th-century Europe led to changes in religion after the Black Death; and that "whales changed human possibilities" thanks to the oil made from their blubber, which "provided a genuinely bright source of illumination" and made the night a time for productivity. Throughout, Barnes demonstrates many lessons humans can learn from the animal kingdom: the platypus, for example, shows that "there are creatures queerer than we are capable of supposing," and the realization of dolphins' intelligence has led to "rethinking about the place of humans in the world." Vivid illustrations are a bonus and complement Barnes's moving prose, as when he notes that the saola, a forest-dwelling bovine discovered in Vietnam in 1992, was "the land's last secret. The age of finding is over; we are already deep in the age of losing." This impressive survey offers plenty to savor.
