BOOK SPOTLIGHT: THE INTIMATE BOND

The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History
by Brian Fagan

New York Times bestselling author Brian Fagan shows how the powerful bond between Homo sapiens and other species has determined the course of civilizations and even shaped human character. 

Animals, and our ever-changing relationship with them, have left an indelible mark on human history. From the dawn of our existence, animals and humans have been constantly redefining their relationship with one another, and entire civilizations have risen and fallen upon this curious bond we share with our fellow fauna. 

Brian Fagan unfolds this fascinating story from the first wolf who wandered into our prehistoric ancestors' camp and found companionship, to empires built on the backs of horses, donkeys, and camels, to the industrial age when some animals became commodities, often brutally exploited, and others became pets, nurtured and pampered, sometimes to absurd extremes. 

Through an in-depth analysis of six truly trans-formative human-animal relationships, Fagan shows how our habits and our very way of life were considerably and irreversibly altered by our intimate bond with animals. 

With characteristic care and penetrating insight, Fagan reveals the profound influence that animals have exercised on human history and how, in fact, they often drove it.

Tyson