Book description
" Honey bees--and the qualities associated with them--have quietly
influenced American values for four centuries. During every major period
in the country's history, bees and beekeepers have represented order and
stability in a country without a national religion, political party, or
language. Bees in America is an enlightening cultural history of bees
and beekeeping in the United States. Tammy Horn, herself a beekeeper,
offers a varied social and technological history from the colonial
period, when the British first introduced bees to the New World, to the
present, when bees are being used by the American military to detect
bombs. Early European colonists introduced bees to the New World as part
of an agrarian philosophy borrowed from the Greeks and Romans. Their
legacy was intended to provide sustenance and a livelihood for
immigrants in search of new opportunities, and the honey bee became a
sign of colonization, alerting Native Americans to settlers' westward
advance. Colonists imagined their own endeavors in terms of bees'
hallmark traits of industry and thrift and the image of the busy and
growing hive soon shaped American ideals about work, family, community,
and leisure. The image of the hive continued to be popular in the
eighteenth century, symbolizing a society working together for the
common good and reflecting Enlightenment principles of order and
balance. Less than a half-century later, Mormons settling Utah (where
the bee is the state symbol) adopted the hive as a metaphor for their
protected and close-knit culture that revolved around industry, harmony,
frugality, and cooperation. In the Great Depression, beehives provided
food and bartering goods for many farm families, and during World War
II, the War Food Administration urged beekeepers to conserve every ounce
of beeswax their bees provided, as more than a million pounds a year
were being used in the manufacture of war products ranging from
waterproofing products to tape. The bee remains a bellwether in modern
America. Like so many other insects and animals, the bee population was
decimated by the growing use of chemical pesticides in the 1970s.
Nevertheless, beekeeping has experienced a revival as natural products
containing honey and beeswax have increased the visibility and
desirability of the honey bee. Still a powerful representation of
success, the industrious honey bee continues to serve both as a source
of income and a metaphor for globalization as America emerges as a
leader in the Information Age.
