In this engaging tribute, Wilson points out that without honeybees our ancestors would not have had artificial light from wax, alcohol from mead, and energy from honey--a medicine as well as a food whose sweetness in a culture without sugar must have seemed wondrous. Bee colonies supplied humans not just with some of life's luxuries but also with food for the imagination. Our ancestors decided that bees--despite their stings--were the "most mysterious and therefore magical creatures, a little society in miniature." Wilson's book is about the human relationship with honeybees--human attempts to master them, and human attempts to understand and copy them. Wilson offers chapters on politics in the beehive and life and death as it relates to honey. She also discusses food and drinks made from honey and the history of beekeeping. With 60 black-and-white photographs and drawings, this book will change our view of these remarkable insects. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
British Praise for The Hive
"Endlessly fascinating." ---The Mail on Sunday
"A brilliant examination of a natural phenomenon we all take for granted." ---Sunday Express (London)
"Erudite, informative, accurate, and a delight to read." ---The Times Literary Supplement
"Riveting…Almost any paragraph chosen at random is entertaining." ---New Statesman
"In her delightful book, Bee Wilson traces the ideas that humans have had about the hive, and how these ideas reflect prevailing views about the body politic." ---The Economist
"Beautifully produced and well researched...leaving readers to marvel." ---The Good Book Guide
"Entertaining and thoroughly worthwhile." ---The Sunday Times
From the Inside Flap
Ever since men first hunted for honeycomb in rocks and daubed pictures of it on cave walls, the honeybee has been seen as one of the wonders of nature: social, industrious, beautiful, terrifying. No other creature has inspired in humans an identification so passionate, persistent, or fantastical.
The Hive recounts the astonishing tale of all the weird and wonderful things that humans believed about bees and their society over the ages. It ranges from the honey delta of ancient Egypt to the Tupelo forests of modern Florida, taking in a cast of characters including Alexander the Great and Napoleon, Sherlock Holmes and Muhammed Ali.
The history of humans and honeybees is also a history of ideas, taking us through the evolution of science, religion, and politics, and a social history that explores the bee s impact on food and human ritual.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Bee Wilson shows how humans will always view the hive as a miniature universe with order and purpose, and look to it to make sense of their own.
From the Back Cover
Ever since men first hunted for honeycomb in rocks and daubed pictures of it on cave walls, the honeybee has been seen as one of the wonders of nature: social, industrious, beautiful, terrifying. No other creature has inspired in humans an identification so passionate, persistent, or fantastical.
The Hive recounts the astonishing tale of all the weird and wonderful things that humans believed about bees and their "society" over the ages. It ranges from the honey delta of ancient Egypt to the Tupelo forests of modern Florida, taking in a cast of characters including Alexander the Great and Napoleon, Sherlock Holmes and Muhammed Ali.
The history of humans and honeybees is also a history of ideas, taking us through the evolution of science, religion, and politics, and a social history that explores the bee's impact on food and human ritual.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Bee Wilson shows how humans will always view the hive as a miniature universe with order and purpose, and look to it to make sense of their own.
About the Author
Bee Wilson was a food critic of England’s New Statesman for five years, and now writes a weekly column for The Sunday Telegraph. She was named Food Journalist of the Year in 2004 by the Guild of Food Writers for her column, two years after being named BBC Radio 4 Food Writer of the Year. She recently completed a research fellowship in the History of Ideas at St. John’s College, Cambridge. She is married with two children, and this is her first book.
