Description
Book SynopsisPart history, part travelogue, and part reportage,
Yard Birds takes the reader on a tour-de-force journey across America, past and present, to profile its urban chickens housed in luxury coops or dying at yearly rituals. What emerges is a compelling picture of city chickens.
Trade Review“This is a cultural phenomenon worth the telling, written with a clear and engaging authorial voice. It is erudite, sophisticated, witty, and accessible.” - Garry Marvin, author of
Wolf“Over five millennia, chickens have emerged as one of the most important domesticated animals in the development of civilization. Levy is an outstanding writer, and deserves praise for his deep appreciation for the most important bird in our lives, and his ability to examine what it means, often in cultural anthropological terms, to live intimately and in intimate proximity to people with this animal--an urban chicken. A really lovely book.” - Jeffrey Greene, author of
The Golden-Bristled Boar: Last Ferocious Beast of the ForestTable of Contents
- Introduction: Kiev's Story
- 1. "But... this is a city": Albany's Yard Birds
- 2. Hen Fever
- 3. Confinement and Banishment
- 4. Hipsters, Humor, Fashion, and Chickens
- 5. Touring the Coops
- 6. The Art of Food Security
- 7. Who Killed Colonel?
- 8. A Blessing in the Book of Life
- 9. Viruses Get the Last Word
- Coda: Here to Stay
