Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization - Softcover

Fagan, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 030024004X ISBN 13: 9780300240047

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2018

Synopsis

Humanity’s last major source of food from the wild, and how it enabled and shaped the growth of civilization

In this history of fishing—not as sport but as sustenance—archaeologist and best-selling author Brian Fagan argues that fishing was an indispensable and often overlooked element in the growth of civilization. It sustainably provided enough food to allow cities, nations, and empires to grow, but it did so with a different emphasis. Where agriculture encouraged stability, fishing demanded movement. It frequently required a search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated movement and discovery; and fish themselves, when dried and salted, were the ideal food—lightweight, nutritious, and long-lasting—for traders, travelers, and conquering armies. This history of the long interaction of humans and seafood tours archaeological sites worldwide to show readers how fishing fed human settlement, rising social complexity, the development of cities, and ultimately the modern world.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Fagan, emeritus professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is one of the world’s leading archaeological writers. His books include Fish on Friday, The Little Ice Age, and the best-selling The Great Warming.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 030024004X
• ISBN 13: 9780300240047
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368