Cow

Description

Review "Considering the central role that cows have played in cultures around the world, it is remarkable how rarely an author has undertaken to devote an entire book to the complex history of this commendable animal. All the more welcome, therefore, is Hannah Velten's Cow, a brief but eminently readable book positively crammed with every sort of cattle lore."--Richard Bullie "Agricultural History ""The book's design and illustrations are beautiful, which means, I suspect, that Cow will be probably bought most often as a gift--for country lovers, perhaps. . . . Velten has a passion for her subject and it comes across. Her account is sweeping but precisely detailed and subtly persuasive. . . . Look hard at cows and you learn about humans. Fascinating and delightful."-- (11/11/2007)"A fascinating paperback . . . A fascinating mix of history, myth and record prices paid for top breeding animals."-- (12/08/2007)"The book feels comprehensive despite its size, for Velten's writing is meticulously well researched. . . . She makes fascinating detours into domestication, breeding, art, religion, BSE, stampedes and the rodeo, and the section on African pastoralism is particularly evocative. . . . Velten's passion for the cow works subtly, incrementally becoming the narrative which binds the text together, and her insights into this seminal beast leave us wanting more."-- (02/08/2008)"She aims to help us see the animals that produce beef, milk and leather as mythical and awe inspiring."--Country Smallholding (11/01/2007) Synopsis Cows, bulls, and oxen are everywhere, physically and figuratively: references, images and symbolism abound in myth, folklore, religion, art, literature, film and the media; even cities have been created around cattle. This ubiquity is undoubtedly due to their long and close association with mankind: since earliest times the power of aurochs (wild oxen) has been harnessed to plow fields, and they also provided meat, milk, milk products such as cheese and butter, leather, horn, and a myriad other useful and valuable goods to early humans. Early civilisations regarded these animals as their wealth, and revered and respected them in religious and secular life. In modern civilisations, however, we have lost this intimate relationship: cattle are now viewed mainly as commodities, set apart from our daily lives. While we are still exploiting the usefulness of cattle, we rarely give them the respect they are due. "Cow", by Hannah Velten, re-introduces the cow, the bull and the ox to the modern reader. It aims to make people think about the animals that are producing their beef, milk and leather, and to see them, once again, as mythical and awe-inspiring.The book begins with the domestication of the auroch around 9,000 BC, and moves through time and around the globe, charting the changing social relationship of man and cattle through myth, folklore, religion, art, literature and film. Containing more than 100 illustrations, with over 30 in colour, "Cow" is a lively and also thought-provoking re-introduction to these noble and majestic creatures. About the Author Hannah Velten is a freelance journalist who has worked as a livestock reporter for Farmers Weekly and has years of experience working with cows and oxen, including on Australian cattle stations and dairy farms in the UK.