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Lesser beasts : a snout-to-tail history of the humble pig / Mark Essig.

by Essig, Mark, 1969-

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Basic Books, [2015]

Pigs -- History.

Pork -- History.

Pork industry and trade.

Food -- Religious aspects.

9780465052745 (hc.)

0465052746 (hc.)

Alternate title:

Snout-to-tail history of the humble pig

viii, 310 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-295) and index.

Keep it simple -- Out of the wild -- "The pig is impure" -- "Of their flesh shall ye not eat" -- "Monstrosities of luxury" -- The forest pig -- "Swine eat things clean and unclean" -- "The husbandman's best scavenger" -- "All the mountains swarmed with them" -- "A great unkindness for our swine" -- "The benevolent tyranny of the pig" -- "Twenty bushels of corn on four legs" -- The republic of porkdom -- "The swinish multitude" -- A growing prejudice against pork -- "The other white meat" -- Vices -- "Back to the start" -- Epilogue: Virtuous carnivores.

Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine are nothing short of a gastronomic godsend -- yet their flesh is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are maligned as filthy, lazy brutes. Historian Mark Essig reveals that swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What's more, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril. Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture from Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago to modern industrial farms, the author blends culinary and natural history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of humans. Pork has long been a staple of the human diet, yet the pig's ability to track down and eat a wide range of substances (some of them distinctly unpalatable to humans) and convert them into edible meat has also led people throughout history to demonize the entire species as craven and unclean. Today's unconscionable system of factory farming is only the latest instance of humans taking pigs for granted. An illuminating history of one of our most vital yet unsung food animals, turning a spotlight on the humble creature that, perhaps more than any other, has been a mainstay of civilization since its very beginnings -- whether we like it or not. Mark Essig holds a PhD in US History from Cornell and is the author of Edison and the Electric Chair. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

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