By its title alone, "Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation," one gets the sense that this book, authored by Tammy Horn, explores and explains the intersection between the honey bee and the historical development of the United States. My conclusion after having read the book is that Horn explains how the honey bee was shaped by the development of the United States, especially in a sociological sense. Suppose that X="honey bees" and Y="historical development of the USA," it seems that Horn's thesis is that X, in part, led to Y. I disagree. Considering the many examples in Horn's book, it appears instead that Y led to many of the historical developments related to X.
Given my personal experience as a beekeeper, I was very interested in reading this book. Many reviewers state that Horn's book is a tour de force among publications concerning honey bees. There is no doubt that the book is well written, overall, but it seems to be excessively concerned about the relationship between honey bees and social constructs (e.g., women's movement, racial divides) rather than any other sort of history associated with honey bees (e.g., industrial/market history, scientific understanding, natural history).
Hence, I found that the scope of the book clearly focused on social history, much of which I interpreted as being coincidental rather than cause-and-effect. For instance, Horn's seems rather at awe in her numerous discussions regarding the involvement of women in beekeeping; namely, who would have ever thought that women would be keep honey bees?! Put into proper context, however, women have always been involved in agricultural occupations, chores, pursuits, etc. Women were milking cows when America was settled, so why should it be either odd or particularly fascinating that they would be involved in keeping honey bees? Putting food on the table is important - regardless if you are a man or woman. Personally, I felt that too much effort was expended in describing the social impact of honey bees - when most of these impacts were coincidental rather than cause-and-effect related. Hence, I find the the title of the book is a bit deceiving.
Regardless, the book does have many redeeming qualities that I appreciate. The book is written in a time sequential format - honey bees in Europe, brought to America, and then a decade-by-decade history. Numerous vignettes are provided throughout the book that are both interesting and educational. I **very much appreciated** Horn's use of endnotes, many of which I investigated in more detail. If you are interested in honey bees or beekeeping, then I would recommend that you read and keep this book; the endnotes in themselves provide a "go to" source for additional information.
I would recommend some editorial changes if the book were to be reissued. First, the images included in the book are of very poor quality, most likely due to the printing process and quality of paper used in publishing the book. They are of so poor quality that they somewhat distract from what Horn has written. Second, there is considerable repetition of facts throughout the book. Facts need only be stated once and then built upon. Third, it appears as Horn's editor stopped making corrections two-thirds of the way into the book. While the first two-thirds are well written and constructed, from an editorial point of view, the last one-third is very disjointed and does not flow well at all; one has to slog through the last one-third. This made for awkward reading. In the last one-third of the book, scientific issues related to honey bees are directly positioned adjacent to social issues concerning honey bees, as if they went hand-in-hand together (they don't). There is certainly room for improvement with regard to the editorial quality of this book.
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