Page 87 - All About History - Issue 27-15

Reviews

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE WORLD?

THE EPIC SAGA OF THE BIRD THAT POWERS CIVILIZATION An eggsistential crisis
Author Andrew Lawler Publisher Duckworth Overlook Price £16.99 Released Out now
falltheanimalsintheworld,there’sonein he’s often sidetracked, and it’s hard to keep trac
particularthatwe,ashumans,havefailed ofthechangingpace.However,thelatterhalfo
to give the recognition that it deserves: the the book finds itself back on course, providing
commonchicken.Whatstartedasafeature a deeply harrowing insight into the wellbeing
O pitchtoamagazineeditorendedupasa of modern poultry, from being caged in battery
concise history of the chicken through centuries farmstothebreedingofbirdsthatshouldbe
gone by, and it’s an insightful – albeit, slightly biologically impossible.
waffly–overview. Yet, for a self-proclaimed ‘epic saga’, it’s
Andrew Lawler’s account starts fascinatingly actuallyalittledull.Mapsandpictureswould’v
–thenumberofchickensintheworldismore been welcome, and despite the peppering of
thandogs,catsandratsputtogether.Inretrospect, facts and anecdotes wading through the mire
it’snotsurprising–gotoasupermarketandthe inbetweenislabor
shelves are dominated with chicken, whether it’s a more than a little t
breastoragarlickiev.Evenjustintheintroduction, Philippa Grafton
Lawlershamesthereaderforoverlookingsuchan
essential product in our day-to-day lives.
Andthat’sexactlywhatthechickenis–a
product.Notgracedwiththestatusofadomestic
animal, while simultaneously overlooked as a farm
animal, the chicken essentially has no rights. It’s
only in recent years that the wellbeing of chickens
has come under scrutiny, and – as Lawler points out
–that’scenturiestoolate.
What starts well, however, loses pace fairly Chickens’ motives for
quickly,andthefirstfewchaptersofthebooklack crossing things have been
anyrealimpact.Lawler’sresearchisflawless,but questioned since at least 1847

WORLD HISTORY IN

Thenextbestthingtointravenouslearning
Authors Tat Wood and Dorothy Ail Publisher Quercus Price £8.99 Released Out now
inutes, perhaps not, but a couple of hours It crams in anything from the cradle of humanity
of rapid world history assimilation might andthedeathofLucy,theancienthominid,to
more accurately describe what this Medieval wars, scientific revolutions, environmental
pocket-sized reference guide can offer the disastersandevenabitofexplainingtheoriginsof
M reader. Packed into just over 400 pages thecreditcrunch(andwhynot?).
are 200 choice events from the last 5,000 years of This is economy and succinctness defined:
history(plusabi ofprehistoricdetail) typicallya with a few exceptions, expansive detail on events
thathaveprovedturningpointsinthehistoryof
humankind have been expertly distilled into no
more than 150 words, stripping out interpretation
and extraneous filler to deliver a quick shot of hard,
objectivefact.There’snotmuchtoittolookat,but
itdoesn’ttakeverymuchimaginationtoappreciate
the level of work the two authors would have put
intofirstdecidingwhattoincludeandthen,howto
cram each inclusion down into a nutshell.
World History In Minutes formspartofaseries
of ‘...In Minutes’ reference guides from Quercus and
we suppose the publisher is hitting its stride here,
withapaperbackequivalentofaGooglesearch.
It’s too general and brief even to form part of a
student’scrammingmaterial,butasaquickand
easily understood reference for those in a hurry or
with the attention span of a gnat, it’s perfect. The remains of Lucy, who is estimated
to have lived 3.2 million years ago
Ben Biggs
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