This is a popular history of the domestication of the animals and plants that to a large extent created our civilization. My wife found it interesting but not as well written as her English Composition teaching standards required. Yes, there are areas where I found the structure less than satisfying but it tells stories so interesting that I can forgive some minor issues.
If I fault this book for anything, it is that for many of these stories, it recounts the early attempts to understand the domestication process, then the later attempts, and now today’s theories. While that development process has a certain detective story interest to it, it is far less satisfying to me and much wordier than just presenting current theory.
Since I teach Western Civilization, these domestication events are of great importance. There is a bit of wit and humor scattered through the book, although not as thoroughly entertaining as Mary Roach's similar popular science books.
One surprising deficiency, since the author is a professor is that the lack of either traditional footnotes or endnotes. The bibliography is detailed, but if i am curious about one little detail, I should not need to read through a dozen books and journal articles to find it.
The chapter on humans i thought might examine the futile attempts of eugenics but it is an examination of how for a variety of reasons, humans have changed genetically in ways that have tamed us, making us more able to get along with each other. Also along discussion of why GMO is the Island of Dr. Moreau disaster that many Greens assume but of course it turns into evil greedy corporations cannot be trusted with this, only the selfless universities and other nonprofits.
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