Praise for Lesser Beasts:
“Broad, well-researched.... [An] entertaining study.”
—Economist
“Although history sprawls across countless topics, Essig zeroes in on a long-neglected niche — the pig. In sprightly prose, he tells why the intelligent animal has filled so many plates for so long in so many parts of the world; like good bacon, his book sizzles.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Best Books of 2015
“A witty history of civilization told through our four-legged pork producer.”
—The Guardian (UK)
“Essig's account is fascinating, full of erudition and nuance. He traces societal changes from the pharaohs to Walmart, using the pig. Equally, he uses history to enlarge our understanding of the domestic pig.”
—New Scientist (UK)
“Essig presents the pig in a rich cultural context, weaving natural and social history into an engaging narrative about the lowly beast that has loomed ever so large in our collective experience.”
—Asheville Citizen-Times
“Lesser Beasts offers readers entertainment as well as information ... [some] pages sizzle like bacon, and it’s tough to set aside a book about an animal that’s so close to people, in locale and in physiology.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Garden and Gun
“Mark Essig’s savory history will provide you with hundreds of facts and anecdotes about the remarkable pig, so you’ll impress your friends and relatives around the fire pit. Essig—who lives in Asheville—loves his pigs; he just loves them a little bit more with a nice vinegar.”
PopMatters
“Essig offers a compelling look at one of history’s most divisive animals… informative, suprising.”
“[A] solid introduction to swine culture… Highly recommended. All readers.”
—CHOICE
“Essig examines the longstanding yet often overlooked connections between man and swine… You’ll finish this read with a new appreciation for the phrase ‘bringing home the bacon.’”
—The Local Palate
Portland Book Review
“[Essig’s] writing skill is excellent… a good read.”
“An enlightening culinary history.... A lively, informative farm-to-table feast.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“What Mark Kurlansky did for Cod, Essig might just do for swine.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Essig presents an entertaining perspective on pigs, especially as they relate to humans. After you read this book, pigs will never seem quite the same.”
—Library Journal
“A thoughtful book about the fascinating relationship between pigs and people, from Leviticus to Charlotte’s Web. I learned something new on every page: Essig has a knack for delivering reams of information with lightness and wit, even as he makes an eloquent plea for a reformed pork industry, one where the bacon we eat comes from ‘a pig that lived like a pig.’ Whether you eat pork or not, Lesser Beasts is a gripping meditation on the plight of pigs.”
—Bee Wilson, author of Consider the Fork
“Forget the egg. It’s the pig that’s incredible and edible. And Mark Essig tells the remarkable animal's checkered history with a style and verve that’s as irresistible as bacon itself.”
—John Donohue, editor of Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers who Cook for their Families
“Mark Essig tells a fine tale of the unsung exploits of the lowly pig, from the age of the pyramids and the wars of the conquistadors to the awful abattoirs and trendy restaurants of today. With clear prose and careful research, he redeems an animal that has played a seminal role in human history while enduring near universal disdain. This fascinating book provides a marvelous antidote to our unexamined views on the pig.”
—Andrew Lawler, author of Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization
“Lesser Beasts is a delightful romp through porcine history from the Neolithic era to the present. Mark Essig offers surprising answers to the question of why humans have had such a love-hate affair with the humble pig, and unveils many other unexpected insights. Well written and well researched, Lesser Beasts is a must for historians, pork lovers, and anyone who just loves a good read.”
—Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
“Pigs are omnivorous. And so is Mark Essig. From a Roman recipe for salt curing and cold smoking hams that Cato favored, to the ignoble efforts of American industrial farmers who have shown neither their pigs nor their customers respect, he has sifted the archival record to write a smart and thoroughly engaging social history of the curious entwinings of pig and man.”
—John T. Edge, series editor, Southern Foodways Alliance Studies in Culture, People, and Place
04/01/2015
Essig (Edison & the Electric Chair) presents an entertaining perspective on pigs, especially as they relate to humans. The author begins by detailing the evolution of the creature and how pigs' innate ability to obtain sustenance from a variety of sources and still provide protein for humans has made them crucial to our survival. Taking a mostly chronological view, Essig follows the progress of the pig from Mesopotamia to northern Africa and Europe and eventually the Americas. While countries in Asia are briefly mentioned throughout, this narrative provides a Eurocentric view. Notably, the author covers how pigs were transported across the Atlantic and how they helped New World settlers. Religious views of pigs and changes in attitude toward maintaining and eating the animals are constant themes. Concluding with the problems of contemporary factory farming and case studies of various chain restaurants, this book is very thorough in covering a relevant subject topic. VERDICT After you read this book, pigs will never seem quite the same. Pair it with Ted Genoway's The Chain.—Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll., Elkhorn Lib., WI
2015-02-11
An enlightening culinary history of an "uncanny beast."Essig (Edison and the Electric Chair, 2004, etc.) begins his sprightly tale 65 million years ago, when a giant meteor crashed into the Earth. The climate changed, dinosaurs died, and mammals began to diversify. Ten million years later, the first hoofed animals appeared, pigs among them. Impressively adaptable, they could search out food with a sensitive snout, and they ate everything, ensuring survival in all manner of terrain and climates. Unfortunately, everything included scavenged corpses and human excrement, which led to their being shunned as impure by certain groups: upper-class Egyptians in the fifth century B.C., for example, and Jews. Ancient Greeks and Romans, though, revered pigs, sacrificing them to their gods and feasting on them. Easily preserved, pig meat became a staple of medieval kitchens; lard gave its name to a household's pantry, or larder. Essig makes a convincing case for the importance of the pig in European economies and forays into the New World. Because pigs breed so easily, have a short gestation period, and can successfully forage for food, explorers' ships contained many sows and boars, which could be deposited on land and left to themselves. From a pair or two, scores of pigs were ready as food for future settlers. By the 19th century, Midwestern American farmers discovered a perfect match between the "breathtaking amount of corn" they grew and the pigs they wanted to fatten. Wheat was raised for humans; corn was fed to cattle and hogs. The author engagingly traces the change in meat production as family farms transformed into giant factories, where pigs are packed into crate-sized pens, antibiotics have become routine, and waste from pig farms pollutes water and land. Although the pork industry "claims that confinement barns are perfect for the animals," environmentalists, animal rights groups, and, increasingly, concerned consumers press for change. A lively, informative farm-to-table feast.
