Customer Reviews

The Complete Chicken: An Entertaining History of Chickens (Country Life)

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The Complete Chicken: An Entertaining History Of Chickens by Pam Percy (who has been raising chickens as a hobby since 1986 on her five-acre property near Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a fascinating and detailed history of chickens in recorded human history, ranging from their domestication and use as egg layers and a source of food, to popular culture features such as the animated movie "Chicken Run." Full-color illustrations and photographs, famous chicken-themed quotes, and a solid body of fascinating information mark The Complete Chicken as a fascinating, bird-themed history which is a "must read" for chicken fanciers and fans.

I picked up a copy of Pam Percy's "The Complete Chicken" and couldn't put it down. It's a great blend of humor and history--great for chicken aficionados and chicken newbies alike. I particularly like its collection of chicken paintings and other artwork throughout history. I plan to give this book to all of the hobby farmers on my Christmas list this year.

I have really been enjoying this book. It's one that I can pick up any time, and as I read, I frequently find myself saying to whoever is near, "Listen to this...."
Interesting, funny, well-written, even useful -- thoroughly charming.

I was excited when I saw this book, I was hoping for a comprehensive guide to the history of the chicken, my favorite land animal. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice book great pictures, great vintage art but in no way complete. Great for someone who has a slight interest in chickens, or loves country.

This book describes, in at times overwhelming detail, the role of the chicken in the development of psychoanalytic thought and practice, and by extension, the history of twentieth century Western culture. I sincerely hope that the author plans a follow-up to this definitive text, outlining the chicken's equally-influential role in Eastern thought (most notably Zen Buddhism).

I am certain that Auden's observation that Freud was no longer an individual, but rather a "climate of opinion," had everything to do with the "Flock Dialectic," detailed in this remarkable book (and leave it to Lacan, of course, to take this statement to its inevitable conclusion, in his work on "poulets picotant pour la graine," particularly in as it pertains to his "Romantic Construction of the Unconscious").

One does not have to be an academic to comprehend the manner in which the chicken's flightless, songless state morphed, via a Bahktinian (by way of Rabelais) inversion of norms, into the "cri de couer" of our strange and troubled century.

If you are interested in psychoanalytical praxis, I heartily recommend this book. That said, the lay reader or analysand will find it enlightening, as well.