Some viewers of Food, Inc. (a 2010 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary), as well as several other recent movies that explore serious dysfunctions in America's food supply, may well be considering vegetarianism as a way of life.
Several cultures that first arose in the Indian subcontinent have practiced vegetarianism for millenia, and evidence exists for the practice in ancient Greece as early as the 6th century BCE. A number of religious traditions advocate vegetarianism in varying degrees, and while the first formal organization devoted to the practice in the West (The Vegetarian Society) was not founded until 1847, books about the practice have been published in the West since at least the 17th century. Benjamin Franklin, for example, writes in his Autobiography (the unprepossessing true First Edition, written in French and published in Paris in 1791, is depicted below) that he was converted to vegetarianism at age 16 (although historians now dispute the extent of Franklin's long-term commitment):
Franklin attributes his conversion to "a Book written by one Tryon." His reference is to Thomas Tryon's Philotheos Physiologus..., published in London in 1683. (Lewis Gompertz, who founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824, also was famously influenced by Tryon's book.)
Other early books noting the benefits of vegetarianism include John Arbuthnot's 1731 Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments...(the book was so popular that a Second Edition, with advice on diet, was published the very next year); George Cheyne's 1733 title, The English Malady...(in which English depression is attributed to "the variable English climate, sedentary habits and too much meat and alcohol"); and Louis Lemery's 1745 work, A Treatise on All Sorts of Foods... (in which he famously cautions non-vegetarians "against overindulgence in frog meat"). These and other interesting tidbits are readily discovered in any of several excellent recent general histories of vegetarianism, such as those depicted below:
These types of general histories of the practice make an excellent foundation upon which to build a private library devoted to vegetarianism. Such histories can readily be supplemented by any number of recent histories that are specific to particular nations:
Some folks, of course, will want to do this sort of book collecting in much greater depth, adding to their shelves books about, e.g., famous vegetarians...
...cookbooks of various types...
...perhaps even books about the ethics of modern food production itself:
Given sufficient disgust with the "efficiencies" of modern food production, a private library about vegetarianism could even include books preparatory to a movement back to the land....
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