Though the word ‘vegetarianism’ was not coined until the mid-nineteenth century, the vegetarian diet has been around as long as man has. Vegetarians have included in their number: heretics, humanists, Hindus, Christian fundamentalists, radicals, agnostics, philosophers, founders of religion and even an Emperor. Not surprisingly vegetarians have often been discriminated against – sometimes tortured, even killed – for their beliefs. So the history of vegetarianism is also a history of dissidence and revolt. Colin Spencer’s comprehensive book, reissued in paperback for the first time in fifteen years explores the psychology of abstention from flesh and attempts to discover why omnivorous humans at times voluntarily abstain from an available food. The result is a thorough work of scholarship, entertaining in places, horrifying in others. The breadth of Spencer’s research is quite outstanding and makes for a truly erudite read. He begins in pre-history and ends in the present day.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword for 2nd Edition
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 In the Beginning
  • The Decisive Primate
  • The Aquatic Ape?
  • Toolmakers and Gatherers
  • Migration
  • The Emergence of Humans
  • Gathering Food
  • Taming the Environment
  • Surplus Food
  • Altars and Gardens
• 2 Pythagoras and His Inheritance
  • Meat in Homer
  • The Life of Pythagoras
  • The Teaching
  • Beans
  • The School at Croton
  • Stories
  • Religious Practice
  • The Orphic Religion
  • Egypt
  • Zoroaster
  • The Pythagorean Enigma
  • Empedocles
  • The Pythagoreans
  • Aristoxenus
  • The Heritage of Pythagoras
• 3 India
  • The Indus Valley
  • The Aryan Invasion
  • Hinduism
  • Buddhism
  • Jainism
  • Asoka
• 4 Plato to Porphyry
  • Plato at Table
  • Greek Food
  • Aristotle
  • The Stoics
  • Rome
  • Plutarch
  • The Neoplatonists
  • Porphyry
• 5 Early Christianity
  • St Paul’s Gospel
  • The Essenes
  • The Dietary Laws
  • Christian Expansion
  • Asceticism
  • Meat and Milk
  • The Quail Plague
  • Clean or Unclean
• 6 Gnostic Sects and the Manicheans
  • Whence Came the True Voice of God?
  • The Equality of Women
  • Gnostic Variety
  • Manicheanism
  • Augustine of Hippo
• 7 The Bogomils, the Cathars and the Orthodox Church
  • The Paulicians
  • The Massalians
  • The Bogomils
  • Royal Converts
  • Growing Heresies
  • Pure and Vegetarian
  • Cathar Doctrine
  • The Albigensian Crusade
  • Two Christian Saints
  • The Criminal Prosecution of Animals
  • Articles of Faith
  • Medieval Fasting
• 8 The Renaissance
  • Riches and Famine
  • Dissident Voices
  • Renaissance Man Himself
  • Food as Secular Ritual
  • Rediscoveries
  • Explorations
• 9 The Clockwork Universe
  • Cartesianism
  • More Dissidents
  • Thomas Tryon
  • Soul Searching
  • To Eat Meat or Not?
  • Two Poets
  • Pierre Bayle
• 10 The Rise of Humanism
  • The Reforming Spirit
  • Belief and Scepticism
  • Voltaire
  • Paine
  • Paley
  • Franklin
  • Ritson and the Cry of Nature
  • The Agricultural Revolution
  • Shelley
• 11 Docks and Dandelions
  • Swedenborg’s Disciples
  • Concordium
  • Ramsgate and After
  • The Indian Mutiny
  • Animal Slaughter
  • The United States
  • London and Reform
  • George Bernard Shaw
  • Wagner
  • Croydon and the Simple Life
  • Animal Welfare
  • Tolstoy and the Dukhobors
  • Gandhi and the Danielites
  • The Flowering of the Ethic
• 12 Sunlight and Sandals
  • Poverty and War
  • Criticism and Ridicule
  • Raw Foods
  • Hitler
  • Between the Wars
  • The Order of the Cross and Mazdaznanism
  • The Second World War
• 13 Sentient or Machine?
  • The Counter-Culture
  • Modern Farming
  • Caring for the Environment
  • The Concept of Pure Food
  • Government Bungling
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Class
  • The Reason Why
  • The Future
• Afterword
• Appendix 1: The Later History of Buddhism
• Appendix 2: Manicheanism in China
• Appendix 3: Modern Hinduism
• Appendix 4: The Rise of the Vegetarian Cookery Book
• Notes
• A Select Bibliography