Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization

by Brian M. Fagan

An archaeologist examines humanity’s last major source of food from the wild, and how it enabled and shaped the growth of civilization.

In this history of fishing—not as sport but as sustenance—archaeologist and best-selling author Brian Fagan argues that fishing was an indispensable and often overlooked element in the growth of civilization. It sustainably provided enough food to allow cities, nations, and empires to grow, but it did so with a different emphasis. Where agriculture encouraged stability, fishing demanded movement. It frequently required a search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated movement and discovery; and fish themselves, when dried and salted, were the ideal food—lightweight, nutritious, and long-lasting—for traders, travelers, and conquering armies. This history of the long interaction of humans and seafood tours archaeological sites worldwide to show readers how fishing fed human settlement, rising social complexity, the development of cities, and ultimately the modern world.

“A tour-de-force . . . Achieves its goal of putting fishing on par with hunter-gathering and agriculture in the history of human civilization.” —Leon Vlieger, Natural History Book Service 

“A valuable book as well as an interesting one . . . Fagan succeeds in providing an admirable primer for the enthusiast and a welcome tool for the historian.” —Economist

“A unique panoramic survey of the field.” —Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History

“Gently scholarly, elegant . . . A compelling picture of how fishing was so integral in each society’s development. A multilayered, nuanced tour of “fishing societies throughout the world” and across millennia.” —Kirkus Reviews

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Food, Archaeology, Audiobook, Nature

365 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 26, 2017

About the author

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a fisher. In fact, I’m a vegan. Stat doesn’t mean, however, that the history of civilization isn’t important to me. Something that I’d never considered, and indeed, which is often overlooked, is just how important fishing has been for civilized society. Brian Fagan argues that it could not have developed without fishing.

Following roughly a chronological/geographical scheme, Fagan takes us from prehistoric times up to the modern era where technology has led to over-fishing and depletion. There’s quite a bit of nitty-gritty on fishing here, and for those who feel for animals, it’s not the easiest read. It is nevertheless interesting. I know that when I think of the broad sweep of civilization, I always think about agriculture. Learning to plant and grow allowed for stable settlements. Fish played a part too.

I guess since I don’t eat fish, I haven’t paid much attention to the plight caused by over-fishing. We tend to think the oceans too vast to be depleted. As I mention on my blog (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), technology makes such things possible. One of the things that bothered me about this book was the sense that there was little concern for the fish themselves. Making them into an industry masks the fact that, despite their numbers, fish are creatures just trying to survive.

That’s why I don’t often read about food. The notion bothers me. Even eating plants feels, at times, like exploitation. Like many kids, I used to fish. I gave up because I never caught anything. The truth is, I wouldn’t have known what to do with a fish if I caught it. My guess is that I wouldn’t have ground it up to feed herbivores, however, which is what happens to large parts of today’s catches. A vegan just wouldn’t do that.

[Shotabdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

সভ্যতার সাথে সমুদ্রের সম্পর্কটা এখানে আলোচিত হয়েছে বৃহৎ পরিসরে। সমুদ্র তো অনেক কিছুর উৎস, শরীরের জ্বালানিরও বটে।
৩.৫/৫

[Vivek KuRa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being an avid fisherman myself, who has done my fair share of fishing in lakes, rivers, surfs, and deep seas of North America, I was naturally drawn to this book when I saw it in hoopla. I have caught quite a few fish species using different tackle in my life and was always interested in the history of fishing itself and its techniques and equipment’s evolution. This book did help me with that to some extent. But not to the level I hoped it would. Unlike other books of Brian, this book’s content was extremely dry and textbook like. Also, the lay out of the book is not in any logical or chronological order and is all over the place which was frustrating and off-putting. So, I ended up skimming through the book quickly and finished it. In the end, I cannot really say that I learned things I already didn't know from this book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a fisherman. I rarely eat seafood. And (thankfully) this is not a book about those things, it is about how civilization was supported by and relied on the food from the seas. And so I enjoyed this latest work by Brian Fagan (the third book of his that I have read). Starting from distant pre-history in Africa to modern struggles with sustainable fishing, the book explores the archaeological evidence for humans using the sea as a source for food. For some people, fish and mussels were sources for lean months supplementing other foods, while other groups could be more reliant on seafood.

The major criticism is that there is difficulty establishing causation for why having seafood encouraged and supported the development of civilization. This work does a good job of establishing how the sea fed civilization with its myriad of examples, but the extension seems weak. The examples do not explore this point, which is suggested from the abstract. There are other points of weakness, such as linking locations back to the maps several chapters earlier.

Overall, I enjoyed reading another book by Brian Fagan.

(This review was made possible by Goodreads and the book giveaways.)

[Steven Minniear · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative book that really has me rethinking my understanding of early cultures and economies. However, it so needed a very close editing. At many times I thought the author had merely strung together separate articles into a book. Read this for the content and you will appreciate the new outlook it can give you.

[LAB · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Brian Fagan narrates the history of subsistence and industrial fishing around the world. In so doing he also demonstrates how fish enabled long distance exploration and settlement of harsh country. From individuals picking up fish in shallow ponds to deep sea ocean nets Fagan discusses fisheries and fishers and how they learned to catch and preserve the fish. Armies were sustained by dried fish, Egyptian pyramids were constructed by workers fed fish, international trade networks evolved to move fish around the world, and fish helped to create wealth and income disparity. In short: No fish, no civilization. Fagan also offers a look into the future of civilization in the absence of adequate fish supplies and does so from considerable historic perspective--over fishing devastated some populations as early as the 14th Century leaving repercussions whose ripples are still felt.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a way, this book is the key to understanding why the progress is so slow, compared to what the specie could advance. The issue rests on how the Government schooling is organized: the smart ones get into technical fields, and the others are receiving compensation University diplomas so they won't feel dumb. And this way Humanity gets people like Fagan who would probably be very qualified driving a cab, or cooking in some cafeteria. Fagan lives in a world populated by gods, Civilization, Society. And his ability to synthesize is closer to the hamburgers he should have assembled for a living: it is not mass production of food, it's the god of Fishing.

[Fakhrul Izzuddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

These book are very dive deeper in explaining the history on how human started to engage in fishery activity. The author really focus on whole part of world where fishing become part of early human civilisation social economic life from Babylon to ancient Egypt then Mediterranean to Austronesia archipelago then to American. It show how the progress and development in term of techniques and technology iof fishery that keep evolving till Industrial Revolution. These book not just stop but the autbor also give his own insight about the future fishing and how ir can be more sustainable for long run.

[Marc Hutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading but contains numerous typos and just flat out errors that should have been caught by the copy reader much less the editor. The bibliography is a absolute joke for what is supposed to be a scholarly work. Much better suited for casual reader that will take what is written at face value and not really that interested in seeing if it is collaborated by other sources. Not sorry that I took the time to read it but there are much better works on the subject out there.

[Hannah Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book but I was almost halfway through and I felt I had learned what I needed. I feel like the chapters were disorganized and didn’t make much sense in terms of topics and themes, it all just ran together. But the content was super interesting.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! It takes a great archaeologist and historian to synthesize archaeological data and interpretation into history. Fagan does both well and his history on fishing was an awesome book!

[Charlie Rosenthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a bunch of people ask me about this book and I don't think I did a good job of explaining it once, but, trust me, this book is fascinating.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A survey of fishing globally from the distant past to the present. Some great facts, and the integration of archaeology and history is interesting.

[Kay]

Read with Steve, spring 2019

I may need to give up eating salmon.

[Bumjoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last part of this book gives important message to us.

[Michelle Bizzell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry, but just the kind of niche topic I like. Early civilizations, fishing history, etc.

[barbs]

I gave this book a chance, but the truth is I can't stand fish, not even their smell, so I guess I wasn't the ideal reader for this.

[Rrrrrron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf @60%. Not as good as his other works. Too much in the details

[Liam Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly like 50% about ice age archeology

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fishing is a tour-de-force, rich in archaeological and anthropological detail, that convincingly shows the underappreciated but important role of fish and fisheries in the rise of human civilization. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2018...

[Patrick Beach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great work here