Vegetarianism: A History

Vegetarianism: A History

by Colin Spencer
Vegetarianism: A History

Vegetarianism: A History

by Colin Spencer

eBook

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Overview

Though the word ‘vegetarianism’ was not coined until the mid-nineteenth century, the vegetarian diet has been around as long as man has. Vegetarians have included in their number: heretics, humanists, Hindus, Christian fundamentalists, radicals, agnostics, philosophers, founders of religion and even an Emperor. Not surprisingly vegetarians have often been discriminated against – sometimes tortured, even killed – for their beliefs. So the history of vegetarianism is also a history of dissidence and revolt. Colin Spencer’s comprehensive book, reissued in paperback for the first time in fifteen years explores the psychology of abstention from flesh and attempts to discover why omnivorous humans at times voluntarily abstain from an available food. The result is a thorough work of scholarship, entertaining in places, horrifying in others. The breadth of Spencer’s research is quite outstanding and makes for a truly erudite read. He begins in pre-history and ends in the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781911621508
Publisher: Grub Street Cookery
Publication date: 05/05/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 400
File size: 830 KB

About the Author

Colin Spencer is an English writer and artist who has produced a prolific body of work in a wide variety of media since his first published short stories and drawings appeared in The London Magazine and Encounter when he was 22. His work includes novels, short stories, non-fiction (including histories of food and of homosexuality), cookery books, stage and television plays, paintings and drawings, book and magazine illustrations. He has written and presented a television documentary on vandalism, appeared in numerous radio and television programmes and lectured on food history, literature and social issues. For fourteen years he wrote a regular food column for The Guardian.

Table of Contents

Foreword for 2nd Edition viii

Foreword x

Acknowledgements xiv

1 In the Beginning 1

The Decisive Primate

The Aquatic Ape?

Toolmakers and Gatherers

Migration

The Emergence of Humans Gathering Food

Taming the Environment

Surplus Food

Altars and Gardens

2 Pythagoras and His Inheritance 38

Meat in Homer

The Life of Pythagoras

The Teaching

Beans

The School at Croton

Stories

Religious Practice

The Orphic Religion

Egypt

Zoroaster

The Pythagorean Enigma

Empedocles

The Pythagoreans

Aristoxenus

The Heritage of Pythagoras

3 India 70

The Indus Valley

The Aryan Invasion

Hinduism

Buddhism

Jainism

Asoka

4 Plato to Porphyry 85

Plato at Table

Greek Food

Aristotle

The Stoics

Rome

Plutarch

The Neoplatonists

Porphyry

5 Early Christianity 107

St Paul's Gospel

The Essenes

The Dietary Laws

Christian Expansion

Asceticism

Meat and Milk

The Quail Plague

Clean or Unclean

6 Gnostic Sects and the Manicheans 126

Whence Came the True Voice of God?

The Equality of Women

Gnostic Variety

Manicheanism

Augustine of Hippo

7 The Bogomils, the Cathars and the Orthodox Church 142

The Paulicians

The Massalians

The Bogomils

Royal Converts

Growing Heresies

Pure and Vegetarian

Cathar Doctrine

The Albigensian Crusade

Two Christian Saints

The Criminal Prosecution of Animals

Articles of Faith

Medieval Fasting

8 The Renaissance 169

Riches and Famine

Dissident Voices

Renaissance Man Himself

Food as Secular Ritual

Rediscoveries

Explorations

9 The Clockwork Universe 187

Cartesianism

More Dissidents

Thomas Tryon

Soul Searching

To Eat Meat or Not?

Two Poets

Pierre Bayle

10 The Rise of Humanism 213

The Reforming Spirit

Belief and Scepticism

Voltaire

Paine

Paley

Franklin

Ritson and the Cry of Nature

The Agricultural Revolution

Shelley

11 Docks and Dandelions 238

Swedenborg's Disciples

Concordium

Ramsgate and After

The Indian Mutiny

Animal Slaughter

The United States

London and Reform

George Bernard Shaw

Wagner

Croydon and the Simple Life

Animal Welfare

Tolstoy and the Dukhobors

Gandhi and the Danielites

The Flowering of the Ethic

12 Sunlight and Sandals 275

Poverty and War

Criticism and Ridicule

Raw Foods

Hitler

Between the Wars

The Order of the Cross and Mazdaznanism

The Second World War

13 Sentient or Machine? 296

The Counter-Culture

Modern Farming

Caring for the Environment

The Concept of Pure Food

Government Bungling

Genetic Engineering

Class

The Reason Why

The Future

Afterword 331

Appendix 1 The Later History of Buddhism 336

Appendix 2 Manicheanism in China 339

Appendix 3 Modern Hinduism 342

Appendix 4 The Rise of the Vegetarian Cookery Book 344

Notes 346

A Select Bibliography 367

Index 372

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