History of the World in 100 Animals

by Simon Barnes

'So, so good! ... More gems than a pirate's chest ... science, art, history, culture - it's epic and mammoth, a repository of all our truths through their lives' Chris PackhamA powerful and fascinating insight into the 100 animals - from the blue whale to the mosquito - that have had the biggest influence on humanity through the ages. We are not alone. We are not alone on the planet. We are not alone in the countryside. We are not alone in cities. We are not alone in our homes. We are humans and we love the idea of our uniqueness. But the fact is that we humans are as much members of the animal kingdom as the cats and dogs we surround ourselves with, the cows and the fish we eat, and the bees who pollinate so many of our food-plants.  In The History of the World in 100 Animals, award-winning author Simon Barnes selects the 100 animals who have had the greatest impact on humanity and on whom humanity has had the greatest effect. He shows how we have domesticated animals for food and for transport, and how animals powered agriculture, making civilisation possible. A species of flea came close to destroying human civilisation in Europe, while the slaughter of a species of bovines was used to create one civilisation and destroy another. He explains how pigeons made possible the biggest single breakthrough in the history of human thought. In short, he charts the close relationship between humans and animals, finding examples from around the planet that bring the story of life on earth vividly to life, with great insight and understanding. The heresy of human uniqueness has led us across the millennia along the path of destruction. This book, beautifully illustrated throughout, helps us to understand our place in the world better, so that we might do a better job of looking after it. That might save the polar bears, the modern emblem of impending loss and destruction. It might even save ourselves.  

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Animals, Nature, Science, Natural History, Environment

458 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2020

Reviews

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barnes claims in the foreward "what I write about is not, even remotely, confined to England, to the English, or to the English-speaking world. It is a global thing." And yet this book was surprisingly Europe- and Christian-centric.

For example, there are five paragraphs about the snake in the Christian Bible, but one sentence about the Hindu god Ganesh in the elephant chapter. In the gorilla chapter, the only mentions of Africa are a sentence about a Carthaginian explorer, and various European scientists who studied in Rwanda. The panda chapter starts with "Pandas were not known to the West until 1869 when Armand David, missionary and zoologist, acquired a skin." Why on earth start in 1869 with the West's discovery of the panda? Tell me about China's relationship with the panda for centuries prior!

I'm cherry-picking bad examples. Other chapters give information on the crane in Japan, for example, and there's a paragraph about Hinduism in the Cattle chapter (which is nonetheless headlined by one of many epigraphical Bible quote). But it's not nearly as worldly as I was hoping for. Not a bad book if you choose to view it through a European lens, but to me it was yet another disappointing book about 'humanity' and 'the world' with an obvious skew.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was well indexed and included beautiful high quality illustrations and photographs. It briefly covered a wide variety of animals throughout history using different lenses i.e. zoology, culture, socioeconomic etc...

For a general audience with a passing/light interest in animals this would honestly be great. For myself I thought a 100 animals for this one book was a bit of a stretch as each animal was only afforded 3-5 pages. This left me feeling dissatisfied with how deeply the author could investigate the connections between the animal being described and how it influenced human societies during a particular period in time. Most of the information provided felt a bit anecdotal and unfulfilling.

Having finished the book I would not have picked it up if I knew then what I know now. I think the book jacket art and description was a bit misleading perhaps suggesting this was a bit more academic that it was. This strikes me a bit more as an entertaining coffee table kind of book.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently reading this and very impressed with the writing, perspective and design of the book. I'm not impartial...a painting of mine is in the book! (Page 335 for the hardcover version) But I'm also not that partial...I never knew how the book was going to turn out. I hoped it would turn out well but now that I have a chance to read it, it pretty much exceeded my expectations. The chapters are short, educational in that they seem to convey information I never really knew, and honest about the state of animals' vulnerability/extinction/how they're treated by humans. I guess I expected more of a children's book but this is written more for adults. But it wouldn't be bad for children, either, I'd think. And of course, very well designed with great images for 100 different animals. I definitely recommend it.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was the little girl who adored watching mutual of omaha Wild Kingdom with Ricahrd Perkins on the TV. And I’m an animal lover. But I didn’t start reading nonfiction books about animals until just the last few years. Usually I’ll read a book about a specific type of animal but in the case of this book; im immersing myself in a wide variety; like a buffet..

Simon Barnes is a journalist who started out as a sports writer and then progressed to writing about nature and wildlife. He has had a wildlife column in The Times of London on and off since 1989. In the time he has written over 20 books; a few novels but mainly books based in his wheelhouse nature and more specifically the animal kingdom.

This book, was published in the UK last year and in the US in 2022. It is a book essentially of 100 essays; each one about a member of the animal world that has affected the world; and more specifically humanity in a profound way. These essays are short; I’m reading this on an e-reader so I’d estimate 5-6 pages each. And each essay Barnes gives lots of cool and interesting facts about a specific animal and how it has affected the history of our planet.

Because each are so short; this is an easy book to dip in and out of. If I have a few moments between things I’m doing, I can read 2 or 3.

I’m about a quarter of the way through. So far the animals I have encountered have been some you would expect like the cow or the domesticated cat; but others are some that I never would have necessarily said were overly important to humanity.

Here is an example. An egret which is a class of birds that people can picture that includes herons. Birds with long skinny legs that stand in the water very still and catch fish this way. In fact there is one that lives at the lake near my house and I love watching him. BUt apparently, certain types of egrets grow long full feathers when they are in mating season. IN the late 1800s, society women loved to decorate their hats with these striking feathers. So much so that a considerable percentage of the population was killed just for their feathers. At one point 5 millions birds were killed in a year in the US for hats. Until 4 women in London founded two conservation organizations motivated by the plight of the egret. One was called The Plumage League and the other was Fur, Fin, and Feather Folk. And they were quite successful turning the tide of public sentiment about the frivolous use of feathers by way of killing birdsIt was perhaps the first time that people realized that there isn’t an endless supply of wildlife in nature. That in fact our natural resources are not unlimited as was previously believed.

There are pictures in the book as well that show examples of the animals in art and history.

This book certainly has a conservation bent to it. And why conservation should be important to everyone. I will say that 100 is probably too many. This would have been good at 50. After that m it did seem to get a bit tedious and I took off a star for that reason. But if you are an animal lover, a zoo nut, someone who finds watching Richard Attenborough’s The Green Planet or any of the impressive nature documentaries as exciting as a Marvel movie like I do, I suspect you will find this a lovely and fascinating read. I am savoring reading a little bit of this book each day.

[Vicki Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my book of the year, and a volume I have spent a long time reading and rereading. Simon Barnes is a wonderful and passionate writer. These short essays offer a wealth of information about 100 different animals, their origins and relationship with humankind. It is a treasury of facts, humour, fear and hope. Picture researcher Liz Moore has done a superb job of sourcing the diverse illustrations, and the quotations from favourite books at the opening of the essays are very effective. The author's realism is what makes this such a powerful book for me. I read a lot of natural history books and some veer between wild optimism and absolute hopelessness, neither of which is particularly helpful. Our interconnection with nature is vital, and can be beneficial to all forms of life on earth. "Despair is easy in a city. But when you are out there among the living trees and the life is teeming all about, you feel only the life. That's when you know, with a very deep certainty, that every habitat on Earth is saveable, and that every species on Earth is saveable. The rest is only a matter of will".

[Lucy Bruemmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and the ending almost bumped it up to four stars. I likes how the author en corporate de references to literature. Specifically he references Star Wars and CS Lewis a lot which I loved. The only down side is that a lot of the things he mentioned about animals felt too common. I loved the chapters on animals I had never heard of the most. I also loved learning little things about animals I though were commonplace, that surprised me. Overall, I liked reading it and I would recommend it, but not every chapter is full of exciting facts.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really insightful with interesting history and connections to arts, culture and the environment for each animal. However, chapter structure followed a pattern, and analysis used quite UK-centric data that could have been replaced with more global perceptions, especially with animals not native to the western hemisphere.

[James Lees · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this one. It was well written but honestly felt like a chore by the end... very ‘textbook’ vibes and I just couldn’t stay focused. Even though I’m wildly interested in the overall theme of climate change and species extinction...

[lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels important. Despite being non-fiction and 450ish pages, it is surprisingly easy to digest and enjoy. Each chapter is only a few pages, with stunning illustrations and the writing is charming. Highly recommend, I learnt so much reading this!!

[Em theglitterybookworm_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

while i didn’t add every specific animal to my impromptu brain, i got to add some, and even some animal-adjacent people to it!

[Hannah Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely depressing. Plz save the rainforest etc

[Fem (Little Miss Booksniffer) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful but sad. Our human lives are so entangled with the lives of non-human animals, as Barnes sets out to show here. I'm once again reminded of how incredible nature is (I've learned some new, interesting fun facts I will probably bore a lot of people with over the coming weeks/months/years), and how important it is for each and every one of us. We cannot see ourselves as standing apart from it any longer, and we need to acknowledge that without other animals, we wouldn't have been where we are now.

As Barnes himself says, this is not a pessimistic book, but rather realistic: and the reality is that we are on a course to wipe out many of our fellow earth-dwellers as well as ourselves. Almost every single chapter contains a warning in this regard, especially the latter ones. There's a tiny bit of optimism to be found in the way our view on other animals, even those that were historically most reviled or feared, has changed a lot over the past century or so, but we aren't fully there yet. We still need to do better by our precious planet.

[Alex (Spells & Spaceships) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book with beautiful illustrations. Each animal probably takes around a minute or so to read about and they're well chosen. Would make a great family book.

There is a strong conservation message which I liked although there wasn't a strong focus on how amazing the animals are, what they can do etc. It's mostly how it affects humans.

Still enjoyed it a lot though and it's a lovely book.

I would recommend Katherine Russell's The Golden Mole for a similar book with a stronger focus on the wonders of the animals.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrations for every beastie that Barnes described from early 20th century book illustrations like Alice in Wonderland and for writers like Beatrix Potter. Naturalists like Audubon and Lear. Photos of the actual animal to historic pieces like Roman mosaics, Japanese screens, carved Egyptian honeybees. Works from famous painters like Goya, Carpaccio, Rubens & Jan Brueghel the Elder and etchings by Dürer.

Barnes tells history that each of the hundred has experienced with humanity - if humanity was around since he does include Tyrannosaurus Rex and Archaeopteryx - over the centuries if not millennia. Their lives, what they do for the planet and if they are surviving. From coral and earthworms to blue whales and elephants. Animals driven to extinction like the passenger pigeon, the dodo and thylacine as well as ones teetering on the brink even with humanity's maybe-too-late attempts to save their species. Our companions like the cat, the dog, head louse and house mouse. Our food stock and work animals of camel, horse, sheep, cod, rabbit, turkey, cattle and reindeer. The secretive and mysterious saola. And lots more.

Towards the end, he speaks more of the environmental impact climate change has been having on many of our fellow inhabitants of the planet - honeybees that pollinate just about all of our plants - be it for our consumption or for that of our stock animals. Fruit flies and the genetic manipulation that they are constantly undergoing leaving open the ethical question of how far can and should we go with modifying the genetic code of those around us. Jaguars and the rainforests that not only provide habitat for these secretive cats but exchanges tons of CO2 for oxygen and sequesters tons of carbon. Ending with the polar bear which has become the image of climatic change and it's devastating impact on nature.

It's a wonderful read - each chapter is only 4-6 pages - and the reader can certainly jump around to favorites or the unusual. Towards the end, Barnes does get a bit 'preachy' but certainly we need to be reminded that humanity isn't the only species on the planet and unless people and governments across the world come to their senses, animals that we enjoyed seeing in a zoo or in the wild (and there are far too few of those left) will only be pictures of what once was. That is if we manage to survive the upcoming catastrophe that we created.

2022-157

[Cheryl Gatling]

This type of survey book is usually a little on the fluffy side. With a few pages dedicated to each item, there isn’t the opportunity to get very deep. But still, it’s a fun way to learn some facts, and I enjoy them.

I was on animal number two (the domestic cat) when I got the idea there might be something different about this book. Cats were probably domesticated 12,000 years ago, when we began doing agriculture. Suddenly we had stores of grain, which attracted rats and mice, and the cats moved in to eat the rodents. We humans were happy about that, but maybe ambivalent about the cats moving into our houses. Until the cats unleashed their secret weapon. They purred.

We liked that. We petted them, and they rumbled, so we let them stay. Surely that’s entirely speculation, but it also makes perfect sense.

This book includes the expected science-y stuff. (“Camels can go up to ten days without water without needing to drink at all, longer if they have access to fresh green vegetation.” When they do drink they can take on 44 gallons in three minutes.) There are also references to art, and literature, and culture, and the events of history (the silkworm which led to international trade along the silk road, and China’s long monopoly, with worms and secret knowledge eventually smuggled out under the pain of death.)

The animals run the gamut, from common to rare (even to the extinct), from the adored to the despised (for example, the parasitic loa loa worm). Gorilla, bison, blue whale, cod, egret, dodo, tyrannosaurus rex, fruit fly. There are photographs and paintings, often from history.

But the special thing about this book is that there are a bunch of big ideas running through it. For one, that we humans project ideas onto animals, usually wrongly, and then treat them accordingly. We have sought to protect animals we thought were noble or admirable, and sought to wipe out those we thought were vermin. But eradicating a species comes with unintended consequences, as China discovered when they killed all the sparrows, and insects ate the grain.

The idea of extinction was once thought impossible. People believed that God would not allow any of his creatures to perish. People therefore felt free to kill and kill and kill. Nature was seen as infinite, and its bounty inexhaustible. Those were wrong, but it took years and years for the concept to even sink in.

We are now keenly aware of the possibility of extinction, and have sought to preserve our favorite species, for example giant pandas. But animals are best saved by preserving the habitats they live in. But habitat is not as sexy a concept to get people to rally around. So that is an uphill battle.

But habitats and species have been saved, when people have put their minds to it, and perhaps more importantly than that, rallied the political will. We have spent the whole book learning about 100 animals that are wonderful and various, hopefully coming to love them more. But the final lesson, in the last words of the book, is this: “Every habitat on Earth is saveable, and every species on Earth is saveable. The rest is only a matter of will.”

[Smiley C]

Many people think conservation is just about saving fluffy animals...what they don't realise is that we're trying to prevent the human race from committing suicide.
Gerald Durrell

Pushing hard, I managed to finish this book in 3 weeks! I DID IT!

And what a book. I'd recommend it to everyone. The author took us on a tour through time, places and civilisations to introduce us the animals that shaped human's development and taught humanity lessons (mostly related to extinction and overexploitation, then attempts to conserve them. The other way would be Darwin's observations on organisms to suggest evolution, a banger of an idea at the time). It's interesting to see just how animals are linked to our existence in intricate ways, in history, science, mythology and language.

A particular theme, highlighted through the book, is that resources are finite. Egret feathers supply don't last forever. Hunting dodos and thylacines made them extinct. Even the numerous passenger pigeons, a spectacle in sheer number, were wiped out. And there are the tragic stories of species like the Saola, a large mammal discovered only in 1992, and already critically endangered. And there's the polar bears, the famous image of them clinging to the last piece of ice in a never ending sea, a symbol of urgency to mitigate climate change.

It's interesting to see facts about animals closely linked to our lives, the ones we're familiar with. For example, ducks kept in rice paddies, the existence of pig latrines (look this up. It's worth it), honey as a brain food for our ancestors, the rise of oysters from a staple to delicacy. it's just a pity every chapter can be only a few pages long; some aspects I'd love to see better explored.

PS I won't rate this book because it's hard to do so with a popular science book like this one, with the author's own opinion blended in within it. If I go full scientific and frown upon the metaphors and the take on Christianity, this would knock one or two stars down, along with some facts that are widely known and described at a basic level. But as an enjoyable light read, I'd give it a solid 5 star. It would seem unfair to knock out the stars just because it's not as scientific as I would like, when the concept is interesting and the execution of it satisfactory.

[Megan S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humans have had a massive impact on the planet and the other animals we share it with. This book is written about human history, but through the lens of the animals we have affected (and who have affected us) burning our brief spell as the dominant species. When I picked this book up I thought it would be more true to the title “the history of the world” - I guess I was expecting a more natural history of the planet, so more trilobites and less domestic cats. The author (who is an incredible non fiction writer) obviously made a choice to review human history only, and 95% modern European history, with 100 animals. Throughout the book, I bounced back and forth to how I felt about this decision, but in the end, the book the author did write was so fantastic, entertaining, enlightening, and enjoyable, that I suppose I can’t fault him too much that it isn’t the book I thought it would, or could, be. This is certainly the history of the world from this author’s perspective, and that’s alright - he has a fascinating perspective.
I have to add that the paintings and other images really do set this book apart, it’s very engaging to read with historical images inlaid in full colour.
Certainly there are parts of this book that will make you think twice about humanities exploitation of Earths fellow creatures. That’s something I really appreciated, the brutal honesty and realism. No sugar coating our relationship with animals, or anthropomorphising the ethics involved. The author paints the picture of the relationship from both sides, the human perspective and the animals’.
Overall this book is certainly biased, in a way - it is written by a westerner from a mostly western perspective of history (although not totally, he does make an effort to include other cultures and histories), but this does not take away from the relevance of this work. Well worth a read!

[Peter Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were to compile your list of the history of the world in 100 animals, how would you go about it ?

As the dominant species on the earth would you select those others that relate to your species as historic companions, food sources, health & wellbeing or those that have driven changes either physically or psychologically ?

Or would you select those animals that had come before and lead the path to where we find modern animals, perhaps tracing the beginning, or possible beginning, of select major groups that exist now ?

Perhaps you may select instead those that have shaped the planet we knew and/or know now. Those that have potentially created the environment in which we, as a species, walked in the past and walk in now ?

Or you could select by size ? By volume ? By diversity or uniqueness ?

Consider then the authors dilemma when selecting his 100, and in all likelihood as a reader, you will wonder of some inclusions and exclusions. I did.

This is an eloquently written work which is both highly approachable and engaging, whilst at the same time allowing the author to voice and present his own opinions and values which I found added to the work.

From 10 yr olds to older, therefore there is likely something in the pages that will engage, entertain, inform and educate. I found this work to be great as either an animal at a time or for a longer reading session. For this reader, I read this across a couple of months, a few animals at a time as great quick escapes or shorter time fillers. Lions whilst the pasta water comes to the boil, cats before bed time lights out, spiders, well we had to pick the timing of that one a little carefully with my soon to be teenage son who wanted, quite frankly, to skip over those pages.

[beckys_book_blog · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn to this book because of the beautiful artwork. It is full of beautiful paintings of each of the animals.
The book features a range of everyday, exotic and extinct animals. They have been chosen as they have had the greatest impact on the humans in our world.
'From the bees who pollinate our food to the chimpanzees who share over 98% of our DNA, this book explores the unique and thought-provoking relationship between humans and animals throughout history.'
My daughter has loved sharing this book and we have learnt so many fascinating facts. We have dipped in and chosen animals to read about. Here are a few:-

Did you know 'a wasp's nest is made from paper. To make their nest they chew wood, spit it out and from the squashy mess they make...paper. Around 2000 years ago, people in China noticed this and started to make paper for themselves.'

Did you know 'The Dodo was discovered by Europeans in 1598'
Around 60 years later, the bird was extinct. Back then, no one realised that humans could wipe out a whole species. They had loved successfully on Mauritius for many thousands of years'

Did you know at the beginning of the twentieth century there were 100,000 tigers in the world, but now there are less than 4000? Tiger numbers have stabilised as people have worked hard to save them.

There is a clear message throughout this book about trying to look after our world and the animals in it. It includes information on shrinking habitats and climate change. This book would make a brilliant gift. The recommended age is 7+

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

No no no no no. A cobbled together account of random animal facts, none of which will be enlightening, new or interesting to you if you’ve already seen a single David Attenborough documentary. All presented in a manner that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever worked with a similarly self-satisfied, late middle aged, know it all bore, who feels a desperate need to talk to you slowly and not use big words. Almost every chapter includes an unnecessary ‘check me out’ self reference, along the lines of ‘I noticed this myself whilst snorkelling at The Great Barrier Reef in 1992’. There are also a lot of references to religious and mythological animal stories, presented as if factual. Finally, the point of this book is quite clearly to highlight the state of the environment, need for conservation etc. No problem with that, or the point that overpopulation is one of the driving forces behind these issues. As usual however, you find out the author has two children himself. So, you have the typical preachy message of the ‘enlightened’ overprivileged person, flying round the world, eating steak and procreating who encourages you to do as they say, not as they do. It’s alright for them: they’re allowed because they’re special. Bore off mate.

[Connor Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book about how animals have shaped human civilisation - through innovation, industry, culture etc. But also with a huge amount of focus on how humans have shaped those animals and their populations too, directly through overexploitation or indirectly as a rest.of man-made climate change. Almost every single species mentioned has seen negative effects of human actions, which is a really sobering fact, but the book is also hopeful about the future - it manages a balance of being truthful without feeling gloomy. There is so much information packed into the book about each species so it can feel quite dense to read - I found a 'little but often' approach, reading about a couple of animals at a time worked well. Another good book from Simon!

[Deborah Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say, in the end I found the title rather deceiving. If you’re wanting it to learn about world history from a different perspective, through writings about the various animals on our planet (extinct or non-extinct), you will be disappointed.
I actually got the book because I thought it was an interesting concept, and I was curious to see how the author could pull it off. He didn’t. And it’s ok.
The author is clearly a conservationist, and, although he’s not constantly preaching his ideology, he finds ways to tastefully, leave clear messages, here and there, in his writing about each animal.
The illustrations and photos are interesting and beautiful, but the writing style is a bit dry.

[Jennifer Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging collection of essays looking at the human connection to animals, for good and for ill. Pulling from science, history, art, basically every discipline imaginable, Barnes depicts our inextricable interconnectedness to the non-human animal world, thereby showing how we have harmed other creatures, even those we loved, and how we must move toward cherishing our wild companions on this Earth.

[Clayton Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know I did enjoy this. It was an interesting way to collect stories about a variety of animals. Hard to tell about history without religious connections. And the author did include numerous references to Buddhism, Hindu and some other Asian influences. But the amount of Christian and biblical references was A LOT. And that large volume and focus took something away from my enjoyment of what otherwise was informative and interesting.

3.5

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute gem of a book. I picked this up because it was aesthetically pleasing and looked interesting. What I found was a fascinating exploration of the influence of various species on humanity and the development of civilization. Also, u fortunately, a painfully clear picture of the influence of humanity of these non-human animals, and that influence is generally not good.

[Alan Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I feel I have so much to say but don’t know where to start. It was such a great and knowledgeable book, with a lot of opinion from Simon, and as it’s his book he’s allowed, if not obliged, to go all in. The history, the scope of the chapters - I really am very impressed. I didn’t find it depressing; sad and foreboding perhaps, but also we’ll put forward.

[Mark Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful book. The graceful writing is accompanied by beautiful illustrations. I was so grateful for this gift.

Reading each chapter brought a combination of joy and dread: joy - because I was learning so much through the author; dread - because I was learning so much about the damage we humans are inflicting on the earth.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for everyone interested in the natural world, and the interactions between humans and other species with their inextricable dependence. Shrinking habitats due to human interference and climate change pose the biggest threat to all of humanity's and the animal kingdom's survival.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each animal's chapter was filled with really interesting trivia that connected to human history. I didn't enjoy this as a straight read-through; this is better as a coffee table book that is picked up for the occasional ten minute read.

[Jacob Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to read this book as a chapter every night. It was an extremely well-written book that I would recommend to anyone. Even if this isn’t something they think they would enjoy I believe there is something in here for everyone.