<B>Veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a fascinating and delightfulglobetrotting tour (<i>Wall Street Journal</i>) with the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilizationthe chicken.</B><BR><BR>In a masterful combination of historical sleuthing and journalistic adventure, veteran reporter Andrew Lawler opens a window on civilization, evolution, capitalism, and ethics (<i>New York</i>) with a fascinating account of the most successful of all cross-species relationshipsthe partnership between human and chicken. This splendid book full of obsessive travel and research in history (<i>Kirkus Reviews</i>) explores how people through the ages embraced the chicken as a messenger of the gods, an all-purpose medicine, an emblem of resurrection, a powerful sex symbol, a gambling aid, a handy research tool, an inspiration for bravery, the epitome of evil, and, of course, the star of the worlds most famous joke.<BR> <BR>Queen Victoria was obsessed with the chicken. Socratess