Hunting

Brian Fagan (1936–2025) was an internationally recognized authority on global prehistory. He was emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of dozens of books, including Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization; A Little History of Archaeology; The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations; and The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History.

“In Hunting: The Pursuit That Shaped Humanity [Fagan] offers a comprehensive, authoritative history tracing hunting’s influence on culture and society through the ages.”—Bill Heavy, Wall Street Journal“When meat comes shrink-wrapped, it is salutary to learn from Brian Fagan how much our human condition owes to a hunting deep past. Fagan also entertainingly explores historical hunting traditions and the role of hunters in the modern conservation movement.”—Ian Tattersall, author of Understanding Human Evolution“Six decades ago, the influential edited volume Man the Hunter argued the fundamental role of hunting in the evolution of our species. It was heavily critiqued. Fagan revisits the entire issue in context of more recent history and societal attitudes. Although time is devoted to Pleistocene hunting and foraging, he moves rapidly into elite hunting behaviors with dogs and horses, culminating with the much more contemporary concerns around conservation and the impact of personalities like Muir and Roosevelt. The book provides a highly accessible and truly global assessment of hunting.”—Vernon L. Scarborough, author of The Flow of Power: Ancient Water Systems and Landscapes