Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human - Softcover

Wrangham, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846682851 ISBN 13: 9781846682858

Publisher: Profile Books, 2009

Synopsis

In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: The habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes".

Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today.

"This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome

About this title

Review:

Absolutely fascinating (Nigella Lawson)

Cooking completely transformed the human race, allowing us to live on the ground, develop bigger brains and smaller mouths, and invent specialized sex roles. This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive. He brings to bear evidence from chimpanzees, fossils, food labs, and dieticians. Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one (Matt Ridley, author of Genome and The Agile Gene)

A feast of new ideas on human evolution (Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought)

In modern times we are all obsessed with how to cook, but this book answers the much deeper question of why we cook, and in doing so highlights the fact that what has become an art form, was at it's inception the driving force for us, humans-to-be, becoming the dominant species on the planet.

Wrangham's explanations are always thorough without feeling like you're swimming through treacle. They are simple, logical and compelling, whilst answering some of the biggest questions out there.

At a time when less people are cooking, this book gently reminds us that we in the developed world are walking away from the very thing that made us what we are, and we should squander this defining skill at our own peril.

(Allegra McEvedy, founder of LEON)

How exciting to see a distinguished scholar proving unequivocally that cookery is at the centre of our humanity (Sam Clark, Moro)

A compelling chain of logic (Economist 2009-02-21)

Catching Fire is convincing in argument and impressive in its explanatory power. A rich and important book (Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma)

[Wrangham] has delivered a rare thing: a slim book ... that contains serious science yet is related in direct, no-nonsense prose. It is toothsome, skillfully prepared brain food. (Dwight Garner New York Times)

The claim that 'cooks made us' now has exciting evolutionary support. Let cooks lead the celebrations! (Michael Symons, author of A History of Cooks and Cooking)

Richard Wrangham is the perfect master of paleoanthropology, primatology, archaeology, human biology, and the chemistry and physics of food. No one else could combine these disciplines to yield revolutionary insights about food history. He convinces us that food preparation techniques, including cooking with fire, started deeper in the hominid past than most historians thought possible, and that its legacy and effects have shaped our bodies as well as our cultures. Along the way, he helps us understand what has gone wrong with modern nutrition (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of The World: A Global History)

Book Description:

A groundbreaking new theory of evolution

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1846682851
• ISBN 13: 9781846682858
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320