Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #759029 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-10
• Released on: 2007-07-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Food writer and Sunday Telegraph columnist Bee Wilson, who says she acquired her name long before her fascination with the insect Apis mellifera, takes an entertaining look at the extraordinary notions humans have had through the ages about honeybees. She shows how people, lacking until recently any scientific knowledge of how bees live, communicate and produce honey, have projected onto the bee human values and morals. The organization of the hive, for example, is seen as a model of the perfect society; worker bees symbolize selfless industry and the joy of productivity. The bee has been a symbol of virtue, chastity, Christianity, the human soul, good and bad politics, and sex—even though, with the exception of the queen and a few drones, most bees have no sex life at all. After discussing these and other strange ideas, tempering the myths with the facts of modern science, Wilson delves into the evolution of bee-keeping and the history of honey's uses in medicines, beauty products and food, and she even includes a few recipes. There's too much information in too few pages, but Wilson treats her subject lucidly and humorously, and her book is fascinating. 60 b&w photos. (June 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In this thorough study that is divided into such chapters as work, sex, and politics, Wilson traces the fascination with and misunderstanding of bees throughout history. Early cultures revered the insects for both their social structure and the sweet rewards of their labors. The geometric form of the hive is evidenced in the architectural designs of Gaudí and Le Corbusier. The wax provided light both literally and spiritually in the medieval Christian church. The hive has long been a symbol of social unity, and the happy worker bee is a model for labor. Honey is celebrated for its flavor, aroma, and medicinal qualities. It was even used as an embalming fluid by the ancient Babylonians and later by the Greeks. The birds and the bees, honey I'm home, and honeyed words are all referenced here. Black-and-white historical illustrations appear throughout, and a few recipes are included. Although this may be too much honey for some teen readers, it supplies solid information for popular-science enthusiasts.–Brigeen Radoicich, Fresno County Office of Education, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In this engaging tribute, Wilson points out that without honeybees our ancestors would not have had artificial light from wax, alcohol from mead, and energy from honey--a medicine as well as a food whose sweetness in a culture without sugar must have seemed wondrous. Bee colonies supplied humans not just with some of life's luxuries but also with food for the imagination. Our ancestors decided that bees--despite their stings--were the "most mysterious and therefore magical creatures, a little society in miniature." Wilson's book is about the human relationship with honeybees--human attempts to master them, and human attempts to understand and copy them. Wilson offers chapters on politics in the beehive and life and death as it relates to honey. She also discusses food and drinks made from honey and the history of beekeeping. With 60 black-and-white photographs and drawings, this book will change our view of these remarkable insects. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

mildly pleasant
I am curious about honey, because I feel I should like it more than I do, so I picked up this book partly based on reviews and the back cover.
The book is pleasantly written, informative, full of unexpected bits. There are recipes, sections on how the hive has been used as a political metaphor throughout the ages (in the Middle Ages, the queen was a king, of course), and interesting coverage of the scientists who advanced knowledge of the hive.
So, to sum up: this is a useful book, pleasantly written, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about bees. I have a little caveat to add, though. It miffed me how, nowadays, reviewers tend to be so extravagant in their praise. It is as if they feel they need to be heard above the din by shouting louder than anybody else. Could they please stop calling everything brilliant that is just good? After all, what is bad with good?
PS. This little rant should not, I hope, dissuade anyone from reading this book.

The Hive and Mankind
This book is not just about bees and the history of beekeeping. This also deals with how bees have been linked to sex, death, food and drink. The book deals with mead, the Church and bees, the Romans and bees, the Renaissance and bees. How bees, and their hives, shaped our ideas of nature, science, government and God. They became the symbols of power, of Kings and Popes, of socialism and order.
There are also lists of recipes for food made from honey and potions made with honey. This is a must for any fan of bees or any beekeeper.
Bee Wilson is a big fan of bees and the honey they produce, going so far as to visit an apiary and, yes, she has been stung. You can feel her wonder and joy at writing her first book on the subject. And it is a joy to read.
But one warning. Mormons are not shown in a good light as the other reviews show.

Questionable Scholarship
I initially enjoyed the book very much, but then I was very taken aback by the blatant religious bigotry in the book toward Mormons. If Ms. Wilson can express such slanted and misinformed views about Mormons in a supposed scholarly work it certainly calls the rest of her scholarship into question. I can't help but doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book -- why would she be accurate in other ways and be so totally inaccurate about Mormons, their origins and what they believe? Her claim that she doesn't "mean to be offensive" rings hollow -- she absolutely does intend to offend, and she absolutely does. Moreover, her sidebars about Mormons and their supposed beliefs have nothing whatever to do with bees and the fact that Utah is the beehive state. It was just Mormon-bashing plain and simple.

My husband (who is not a Mormon, by the way) read that passage and said that he no longer had any interest in reading the book because he found her bigotry so off putting. I would never have purchased the book had I realized it contained that, and I am surprised the publisher allowed her uninformed diatribe to pass through. It is a shame because the premise of the book is interesting. I can't know whether Ms. Wilson is telling the truth in the rest of the book or just sort of making stuff up as she goes along, however, so reading the rest of it at this point seems pointless.