Review
'Offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social and intelligent species we are today.' --The Judges of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2010
`A breakthrough in evolutionary biology' --Daily Telegraph
`Wrangham is doing no small thing here; he's putting forward - in the most accessible way - his big new theory... Fascinating stuff, convincingly argued' --Sunday Telegraph
`Intriguing... You need never feel guilty about opting for pie over salad again' --Metro
`My father, whom I took with me [to a vegan raw food restaurant], was citing biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham's book Catching Fire before we had even scanned the menu' --Evening Standard
`Daringly unorthodox' --Sunday Times
`Catching Fire, with its treasure trove of great stories, makes for pleasurable consumption' --Times Literary Supplement
`His lucid theory is most persuasive' Independent --Independent
`Immensely enjoyable' -- Guardian
`This is one of the best popular science books I've ever read' -- William Leith, Evening Standard
`Fascinating and persuasive' -- House and Garden
'This is as unputdownable as a thriller!' --Nigella Lawson
`Fascinating ... If Wrangham's thesis is right, we really are what we eat' --Heston Blumenthal
`A breakthrough in evolutionary biology' --Daily Telegraph
`Wrangham is doing no small thing here; he's putting forward - in the most accessible way - his big new theory... Fascinating stuff, convincingly argued' --Sunday Telegraph
`Intriguing... You need never feel guilty about opting for pie over salad again' --Metro
`My father, whom I took with me [to a vegan raw food restaurant], was citing biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham's book Catching Fire before we had even scanned the menu' --Evening Standard
`Daringly unorthodox' --Sunday Times
`Catching Fire, with its treasure trove of great stories, makes for pleasurable consumption' --Times Literary Supplement
`His lucid theory is most persuasive' Independent --Independent
`Immensely enjoyable' -- Guardian
`This is one of the best popular science books I've ever read' -- William Leith, Evening Standard
`Fascinating and persuasive' -- House and Garden
'This is as unputdownable as a thriller!' --Nigella Lawson
`Fascinating ... If Wrangham's thesis is right, we really are what we eat' --Heston Blumenthal
Book Description
'Absolutely fascinating' Nigella Lawson
Product Description
In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome
About the Author
Richard Wrangham has taught biological anthropology at Harvard University since 1989. His major interests are chimpanzee behavioral ecology, the evolution of violence and tolerance, human dietary adaptation, and the conservation of chimpanzees and other apes. He has studied chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, since 1987.
