Grass: A Human History

Summary

A revelatory dive into the overlooked history of grass and the astonishing ways it has shaped human history

Try, if you can, to imagine a world without grass. There would be no lawns or athletic fields, no meadows or wheat fields, no sweeping savannas or steppes. Gone too would be the countless plants and animals that evolved in grassy landscapes: sunflowers, prairie dogs, bison, lions, and many more. Oh, and there would be no us—at least not as we exist today.

In Grass, award-winning journalist Julia Rosen unfurls the hidden story of humans and grass, illuminating our interconnected and ever-changing relationship. Rosen traces how the plant exploded from ecological obscurity to cover roughly 40 percent of Earth’s land, creating the world as we know it. Grass shaped the evolution of our bodies, minds, and cultures, and even sowed the seeds of agriculture and complex civilizations. Humans, in turn, used grass to remake the planet, transforming native grasslands into breadbaskets, cultivating immaculate lawns, and releasing invasive grasses that threaten to destroy entire ecosystems.

With curiosity, compassion, and humor, Rosen probes this history, delivering a startling portrait of grass and what this humble plant shows us about ourselves. In grass, we can see that humans are not separate from and in control of nature, as Western culture has long believed, but are instead deeply enmeshed in it. Gorgeously written and deeply researched, Grass reveals the surprising lessons grass can teach us about our place in the world—and how we can reimagine it.