Six Legs Better: A Cultural History of Myrmecology

This "provocative, complex" cultural history examines how the study of ants influenced shifting perceptions of humanity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Times Literary Supplement, UK).

Ants long have fascinated linguists, human sociologists, and even cyberneticians. At the end of the nineteenth century, ants seemed to be admirable models for human life and were praised for their work ethic, communitarianism, and apparent empathy. They provided a natural-theological lesson on th...