About this item

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 globethe 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 imaginableas 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 worlds most famous joke.



About the Author

Andrew Lawler

Andrew Lawler is author of two books, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and the widely acclaimed Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? : The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a long-time journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles, and his byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is a contributing writer for Science and a contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew's work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing. For more, see www.andrewlawler.com



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