Evan D. G. Fraser

Andrew Rimas

Chronicles the role of food in history and people's everyday lives--arguing that food crises are cyclical, and that one may be happening now--and offers a view of what the future may hold.

Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Empires of Food

The planet is overwrought, overcrowded, and overcooked. Now the world looks to one, final summit of the world's most powerful people to save humanity. Then this guy gets invited... Professor Magnus Adams has failed at literature, at love, and, it seems, at life. After inexplicably receiving an invitation to a gathering of the world's most influential one-percenters, he finds himself harassed by anonymous text messages from someone who seems to know his most shameful secrets. Against the backdrop of a Trumpian world sliding into irrevocable catastrophe, Magnus grapples with technocrats and terrorists, cosmic horror and crushing hangovers as he tries to discover the identity of his tormentor. But little does Magnus know that there?s much more at stake than his precarious sanity.

The End Note

Dr. Evan Fraser

The cow. The most industrious animal in the world. A beast central to human existence since time began, it has played a vital role in our history not only as a source of food, but also as a means of labor, an economic resource, an inspiration for art, and even as a religious icon. Prehistoric people painted it on cave walls; explorers, merchants, and landowners traded it as currency; many cultures worshipped it as a god. So how did it come to occupy the sorry state it does today—more factory product than animal? In Beef, Andrew Rimas and Evan D. G. Fraser answer that question, telling the story of cattle in its entirety. From the powerful auroch, a now extinct beast once revered as a mystical totem, to the dairy cows of seventeenth-century Holland to the frozen meat patties and growth hormones of today, the authors deliver an engaging panoramic view of the cow's long and colorful history. Peppered with lively anecdotes, recipes, and culinary tidbits, Beef tells a story that spans the globe, from ancient Mediterranean bullfighting rings to the rugged grazing grounds of eighteenth-century England, from the quiet farms of Japan's Kobe beef cows to crowded American stockyards to remote villages in East Africa, home of the Masai, a society to which cattle mean everything. Leaving no stone unturned in its exploration of the cow's legacy, the narrative serves not only as a compelling story but as a call to arms, offering practical solutions for confronting the current condition of the wasteful beef and dairy industries. Beef is a captivating history of an animal whose relationship with humanity has shaped the world as we know it, and readers will never look at steak the same way again.

Andrew Rimas

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