Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plate

The chicken can only fly a few meters, but somehow this unlikely evolutionary descendant of the Tyrannosaurus Rex has conquered the world. Earth is now home to more than 20 billion chickens, at least 10 times more than any other bird. For every human on the planet, there are three chickens.

In Fowl Play, Sally Coulthard traces the chicken's fascinating journey from dinosaur to domestication to exploitation, exploring every aspect of the history of Gallus gallus domesticus: its importance to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans as a food source and fighting bird; its symbolic roles in religion and folklore and its metaphorical function in the language we use; its welcoming place as a companion providing eggs on farms, smallholdings, and in suburban gardens; and its darker modern fate as a battery bird bred to satisfy society's unquenchable addiction to wings and nuggets.

Of all animals, chickens perhaps best represent the contradictory way we humans treat other species, at once beloved pet and cheap commodity, symbol of a sustainable good life and brutalized object of factory farming. The chicken is also a bird we know deeply yet know very little about. As informative as it is entertaining, Fowl Play tells a remarkable story of evolutionary change, epic global travel, and ruthless exploitation—as well as the camaraderie, ingenuity, and folly of human nature.