Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
"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!"--
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Showing 4 featured editions. View all 4 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?
May 31, 2016, Audible Studios on Brilliance, Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
mp3 cd
1522661972 9781522661979
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2
Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization
Apr 26, 2016, Atria Books
paperback
1476729905 9781476729909
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3
Why did the chicken cross the world?: the epic saga of the bird that powers civilization
2014, Atria Books
in English
1476729891 9781476729893
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
4
Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization
2014, Atria Books
in English
1476729913 9781476729916
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Source records
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created July 18, 2019
- 6 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
March 17, 2024 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
January 15, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 19, 2022 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
May 27, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
July 18, 2019 | Created by MARC Bot | Imported from marc_openlibraries_sanfranciscopubliclibrary MARC record |