Customer Reviews

The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THE HIVE: THE STORY OF THE HONEYBEE AND US joins others which have appeared earlier this year covering the bee - but goes further than most, drawing connections between the hive mentality of the bee and human affairs. Bees appear as symbols of many things and their honey product is widely used in cooking: their story blends myth with science and mankind has long been enamored of the bee. THE HIVE traces mankind's different beliefs about the bee over the decades, gathering history from around the world from science, religion, politics and beyond. Lovely black and white drawings throughout enhance a fun story.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

This book is not just about bees and the history of beekeeping. This also deals with how bees have been linked to sex, death, food and drink. The book deals with mead, the Church and bees, the Romans and bees, the Renaissance and bees. How bees, and their hives, shaped our ideas of nature, science, government and God. They became the symbols of power, of Kings and Popes, of socialism and order.
There are also lists of recipes for food made from honey and potions made with honey. This is a must for any fan of bees or any beekeeper.
Bee Wilson is a big fan of bees and the honey they produce, going so far as to visit an apiary and, yes, she has been stung. You can feel her wonder and joy at writing her first book on the subject. And it is a joy to read.
But one warning. Mormons are not shown in a good light as the other reviews show.

I picked this book up completely randomly but have loved every moment of it. I am a huge fan of honey, cooking and the convoluted histories of the foods we love. Always a big fan of honey (and bees!) it wasn't until I read this book that I realize how pervasive and longlasting our human fascination (obsession?) with bees has been. It's an easy read - very detailed with lots of great honey and bee trivia throughout the ages. The writer is a Brit and mentions the history of bees and honey in the U.S. only in passing, so people looking for something specific to North America might have to go elsewhere. This is definitely more of a Western European view.

This is an excellent book for an excellent course, I recommend it to everyone! Enjoy! Am so glad I bought it!

I am curious about honey, because I feel I should like it more than I do, so I picked up this book partly based on reviews and the back cover.
The book is pleasantly written, informative, full of unexpected bits. There are recipes, sections on how the hive has been used as a political metaphor throughout the ages (in the Middle Ages, the queen was a king, of course), and interesting coverage of the scientists who advanced knowledge of the hive.
So, to sum up: this is a useful book, pleasantly written, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about bees. I have a little caveat to add, though. It miffed me how, nowadays, reviewers tend to be so extravagant in their praise. It is as if they feel they need to be heard above the din by shouting louder than anybody else. Could they please stop calling everything brilliant that is just good? After all, what is bad with good?
PS. This little rant should not, I hope, dissuade anyone from reading this book.

I love the lore and allure of bees and was anxious to read Bee Wilson's book. And I did enjoy it until I reached page 37 where Ms. Wilson began a section on Mormons and Masons and their use of the hive as symbol. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,I found her comments regarding the church disturbing. After stating "I don't mean to be offensive," she becomes very offensive for the next five pages and then moves on to attack Masonry. She refers to the church's founder, Joseph Smith, as a "troubled youth" with a "disordered mind," and the second president of the church, Brigham Young, she calls a "despotic loon." More than eleven million members of the church around the world revere these men as prophets of God. I think the church's use of the bee and hive as a symbol could have been covered in less offensive manner. My disappointment in her comments ruined my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

I initially enjoyed the book very much, but then I was very taken aback by the blatant religious bigotry in the book toward Mormons. If Ms. Wilson can express such slanted and misinformed views about Mormons in a supposed scholarly work it certainly calls the rest of her scholarship into question. I can't help but doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book -- why would she be accurate in other ways and be so totally inaccurate about Mormons, their origins and what they believe? Her claim that she doesn't "mean to be offensive" rings hollow -- she absolutely does intend to offend, and she absolutely does. Moreover, her sidebars about Mormons and their supposed beliefs have nothing whatever to do with bees and the fact that Utah is the beehive state. It was just Mormon-bashing plain and simple.

My husband (who is not a Mormon, by the way) read that passage and said that he no longer had any interest in reading the book because he found her bigotry so off putting. I would never have purchased the book had I realized it contained that, and I am surprised the publisher allowed her uninformed diatribe to pass through. It is a shame because the premise of the book is interesting. I can't know whether Ms. Wilson is telling the truth in the rest of the book or just sort of making stuff up as she goes along, however, so reading the rest of it at this point seems pointless.