Yard Birds: The Lives and Times of America's Urban Chickens

by Philip Levy

Overview

In 2009, the New Yorker declared chickens the "it bird" and heralded "the return of the backyard chicken." This honor occurred as, a host of American cities were changing their laws to allow chickens in residents’ backyards. Philip Levy, a sometime chicken keeper himself, mixes cultural history with husbandry to chronicle the weird and wonderful story of Americans’ urban chickens. From the streets of Brooklyn to council chambers in Albany to the beat of Key West’s Chicken Nuisance Patrol, yard birds are an important and growing part of American city life.

Part history, part travelogue, and part reportage, Yard Birds takes the reader on a tour-de-force journey across America, past and present, to profile its urban chickens housed in luxury coops or dying at yearly rituals. What emerges is a compelling picture of city chickens that can both serve as hipster status symbols and guarantee that the families keeping them have at least something to eat. Levy’s smart and entertaining investigation of the contemporary urban chicken craze reveals that poultry flocks were historically an integral part of America’s urban spaces; chickens have simply returned home now, some to very fancy roosts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813949659
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	04/18/2023
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Philip Levy is Professor of History at the University of South Florida and the author of The Permanent Resident: Excavations and Explorations of George Washington’s Life (Virginia).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Kiev's Story
1. "But... this is a city": Albany's Yard Birds
2. Hen Fever
3. Confinement and Banishment
4. Hipsters, Humor, Fashion, and Chickens
5. Touring the Coops
6. The Art of Food Security
7. Who Killed Colonel?
8. A Blessing in the Book of Life
9. Viruses Get the Last Word
Coda: Here to Stay

What People are Saying About This

Jeffrey Greene

Over five millennia, chickens have emerged as one of the most important domesticated animals in the development of civilization. Levy is an outstanding writer, and deserves praise for his deep appreciation for the most important bird in our lives, and his ability to examine what it means, often in cultural anthropological terms, to live intimately and in intimate proximity to people with this animal—an urban chicken. A really lovely book.

Garry Marvin

This is a cultural phenomenon worth the telling, written with a clear and engaging authorial voice. It is erudite, sophisticated, witty, and accessible.

Editorial Reviews

Over five millennia, chickens have emerged as one of the most important domesticated animals in the development of civilization. Levy is an outstanding writer, and deserves praise for his deep appreciation for the most important bird in our lives, and his ability to examine what it means, often in cultural anthropological terms, to live intimately and in intimate proximity to people with this animal—an urban chicken. A really lovely book.

Jeffrey Greene

This is a cultural phenomenon worth the telling, written with a clear and engaging authorial voice. It is erudite, sophisticated, witty, and accessible.

Garry Marvin