Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World

So so. Good for reading on a short flight. Discard afterwards or give to someone else. Not worth keeping in home library.

I have never really given any particular thought to where beef cattle originated or how they became domesticated. I suppose, because I enjoy eating beef tremendously, that I never really wanted to know all that much about the animal.This book is the history of cattle, and to a small extent man, from the earliest days of what are now known as cattle to the present day. Using the Massi tribesman as the background story, the history floats around the world following much the same path that cattle did. IT relates how it is believed that they were domesticated from wild animals and the various methods used to "improve" cattle.An interesting read, it is a bit on the thin side. There is a distinct lack of detail and, trying to cover 10,000+ years of history in a mere 200 pages is fairly tough. If you want a quick overview of the history of the beef industry and the animal itself, then this is a good read. If you want more depth, look elsewhere.

Very informative and entertaining. Great book for anyone in the cattle business or who loves beef.

Diserpointing

BEEF is not at all some detailed and dried-as-jerky story of the common cow. Instead, this work's authors weave a fascinating history of humankind and of our relationship to the animal that has dwelt with and given us sustenance since the dawn of time.The chronicle of our mutual development over the millenia is interspersed with recipes both ancient and modern. The book also abounds with trivia:Cows (bovids) are members of the same family as sheep, goats and gazelles.The aurouchs, an elephantine and unmanageable beast that yielded a ton of meat and was the subject of cave wall hunting scenes in Lascaux, France, went extinct in the year 1627.Contrary to Hollywood's depiction of whooping cowboys on cattle drives, men who work with herds speak in low tones, as sudden noise startles these creatures endowed with extra-sensitive hearing.Our term "cattle" originated with Old French "chattel," the word for "property." Latin for cattle: "pecu," is the origin of "pecuniary," meaning: something of value. Old English "feo" (cow) has survived as "fee." The High German word for cattle is also Gothic for money.The central figure of the Viking creation myth is a cow that licked at a block of salty ice until the man embedded within it appeared.The Egyptians buried cows in their family graves long before they became grain farmers.The Israelis of Biblical Exodus had a pantheon of gods-- "El" the bull was supreme; Yahweh merely one of his many sons. The Dead Sea Scrolls say that El led the Israelis out of bondage in Egypt. When Aaron crafted a golden calf while Moses was away, it was to placate a people intent on returning to their old habits of worship. The golden calf is also mentioned in 1 Kings.Cheesemaking dates to the Sumerians, but it was the Romans who raised it to an art form. In the Dark Ages, cheese was used both as currency and the main source of protein for the poor. Muenster and Parmesan were developed in monasteries.There's much more to be learned, including how modern selective breeding began, the origins of bull fighting, who the first cowboys were (Spaniards), and so on. If you're a history buff, collector of trivia or just one who appreciates well-written non-fiction, BEEF will satisfy your cerebral appetite.

I sat down to read this, and had a very difficult time putting it down.This is an informative and well-researched history of beef, from the very beginnings of human domestication of animals way, way back in prehistoric times to modern day.I am a big fan of beef - one of my favorite foods - and so this book is personally meaningful, simply to read about something that I love so much. But, as much as I love beef, I also realize that there is a huge environmental cost to it in our modern ways of raising it, and Rimas pulls no punches in speaking about what is a simple truth: eating beef (just as all foods) has a moral and ethical component to it, and we, as humans living in a limited world, have an ethical and moral responsibility to be mindful of what we are eating, how much of it, when, how, and why.Rimas does not spend much time on the ethical or moral components of beef consumption, but does do enough to ensure that the reader - the ones whose minds are open to truth, anyway - will go away from this book thinking in new ways about beef. And not in a way that condemns beef or condemns meat eaters. In fact, Rimas is very much in favor of GOOD beef: the non-industrial, non-factory, organically raised beef (such as Kobe or Mishima beef, or the kind raised by my family in Wisconsin and elsewhere that spends much time in pasture, isn't hormoned and antibiotic-ed, and lives as natural a life as possible).Beyond the wonderfully informative historical stuff about beef and cattle, Rimas' position is one of enjoying beef, preferably beef that is raised ethically, but enjoying it moderation.I am a lover all books related to food history (Nathanael's Nutmeg, Cod, Salt, and so forth), and I give this five stars. This is a good one that stands very well along with the others.

Writing books is seriously hard work, and reviewers should always think twice before lightly dismissing the labours of an author, but even after thinking several times, I have to say that this is a sadly disappointing volume.The organisation of the text is chaotic. It consists of a series of disconnected essays, interspersed with infuriatingly pointless and banal `culinary interludes'. An honest editor would have suggested excising all of the latter, as they are a complete waste of space, and a better publisher would surely have agreed to provide some decent illustrations. There are just five small monochrome pictures, in a book that ranges from the Lascaux cave-paintings and the Apis Bull of Ancient Egypt to bull-fighting and the evolution of specialised breeds of cattle. Some of the writing is appalling; silly, flippant, exaggerated, and overwrought. Other parts of the text are quite clearly written, well-informed and thoughtful. There are two authors: the conclusion is obvious. The collaboration may have been what was needed to secure a publishing contract, but it has trivialised an important topic, and made the book extremely tiresome to read.Nevertheless, the authors (or possibly only one of them) have done some sound research, and have provided proper evidence of it in endnotes, though there is no separate bibliography. There are, therefore, some interesting and useful facts and opinions scattered here and there amongst the cloying drifts of purple prose. In particular, the final section, dealing with the implications of modern industrial-scale dairy and beef farming, is serious stuff. The author concerned should build on that, and forget about the attempt to deal with cattle in world mythology, history, art and literature so unevenly and inadequately covered here.The intended subject of 'Beef, the untold story...' has already been very competently and readably addressed in Hannah Velten's well-researched, well-written and well-illustrated 'Cow' (London, 2007).

Very informative and humorous as well.

as expected.