Category: Food Production in History
Books that focus on how humans organize themselves to acquire the energy to survive. Many of these books focus on how this struggle is foundational to human history.
Book Summary: “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human” by Richard Wrangham
Book Summary: “An Edible History of Humanity” by Tom Standage
Book Summary: “Tamed: Ten Species that Changed Our World” by Alice Roberts
Book Summary: “The Plough that Broke the Steppes” by David Moon
Book Summary: “The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis” by Ruth DeFries
Book Summary: “An Introduction to Agricultural Geography” by David Grigg
Book Summary: “The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach” by David Grigg
Book Summary: “Food, Energy and Society” by David and Marcia Pimentel
Book Summary: “Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers” by Robert Kelly
Book Summary: “A History of World Agriculture” by Mazoyer and Roudart
Book Summary: “First Farmers” by David Bellwood
Book Summary: “People, Plants and Genes: the Story of Crops and Humanity” by Denis Murphy
The Ratchet of Technology, a site by Michael Magoon 