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Fish on Friday

Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World

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By Brian Fagan

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On Sale
Aug 1, 2008
Page Count
368 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786722334

What gave Christopher Columbus the confidence in 1492 to set out across the Atlantic Ocean? What persuaded the king and queen of Spain to commission the voyage? It would be convenient to believe that Columbus and his men were uniquely courageous. A more reasonable explanation, however, is that Columbus was heir to a body of knowledge about seas and ships acquired at great cost over many centuries. Fish on Friday tells a new story of the discovery of America. In Brian Fagan’s view, that discovery is the product of the long sweep of history: the spread of Christianity and the radical cultural changes it brought to Europe, the interaction of economic necessity with a changing climate, and generations of unknown fishermen who explored the North Atlantic in the centuries before Columbus. The Church’s tradition of not eating meats on holy days created a vast market for fish that could not be fully satisfied by fish farms, better boats, or new preservation techniques. Then, when climate change in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries diminished fish stocks off Norway and Iceland, fishermen were forced to range ever farther to the west-eventually discovering incredibly rich shoals within sight of the Nova Scotia coast. In Ireland in 1490, Columbus could well have heard about this unknown land. The rest is history.

Genre:

  • “The details Fagan gives … reveal cunning man at his cleverest, always looking for ways, no matter how small, to make his life easier and more productive.”
    Los Angeles Times
  • “In his just-published book Fish on Friday, the respected anthropologist Brian Fagan argues that fishermen who toiled to feed this European hunger probably laid eyes on Newfoundland before Columbus.”
    Wall Street Journal
  • “Combining history, social commentary, scientific hypothesis, and fishing and sailing lore, as well as recipes for fish dishes in the ancient style, Fagan presents a refreshing and intriguing look at the discovery of America.”
    Science News
  • “This superbly written and illustrated history of fishing is also a cookbook. Try the Roman fish stew recipe that survived the empire's collapse.”
    New Scientist
  • “Brian Fagan is justly renowned for his immensely readable books on the human past. Fish on Friday is by far his best.”
    Times Higher Education Supplement
  • “Brian Fagan weaves a detective story of Friday fish-eating, climate change, and ship design to guess who beat Columbus to the New World.” 
    Jared Diamond, New York Times bestselling author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
  • “Delightful.... The author's intelligence, erudition, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject shine through on every page.”
    William Chester Jordan, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, Princeton University
  • “Enthralling history of one of our basic foods.”
    Anne Willan, culinary historian and founder of LaVarenne

Formats and Prices

Price

$10.99

Price

$13.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $10.99 $13.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD

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Brian Fagan

About the Author

Brian Fagan is one of the world’s leading archaeological writers and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of several widely read books on ancient climate change. He has lectured about the subject to audiences large and small throughout the world. His latest book is Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization (Yale University Press, 2018).

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