When I first started learning about veganism, I wanted to know everything I could about following a vegan lifestyle and plant based diet, as well as the things I could do to fuel my interests.
Veganism has some great books written about it, and for those new to the lifestyle and the vegan diet, reading books can change your perspective and give you new ways of looking at things.
Here are some of the most interesting books I’ve found about veganism.
Key Takeaways
1. Why We Love and Exploit Animals by Kristof Dhont and Gordon Hodson
This book takes a fascinating look at why humans love animals and still exploit them at the same time.
They put together this book using trusted experts in the field who try to understand the love-exploit relationship that we humans have with animals.
The book shows the many paradoxes in relationships that humans have with animals.
I loved reading this book because it helped me to understand the human-animal relationship better.
There are different psychological mechanisms at work that let humans care so much about animals while they inflict so much pain on them at the same time.
Many people deeply value the social bonds they form with some of their animals like cats, dogs, and other creatures.
Meanwhile, we routinely devalue other animals and use them for food like pigs, chickens, ducks, and cows.
You want to read this book because understanding the human-animal relations better will let you satisfy your human interests and desires.
This book, in fact, was built on the groundwork that Melanie Joy did in the book “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows.”
A book that explores the psychological, cultural, and societal factors that shape our contradictory relationships with animals, bridging academic research and advocacy to challenge ethical norms.
2. Meatsplaining: The Animal Agriculture Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial by Jason Hannan
Like many of the other profit-driven industries, the animal agriculture industry seeks to aggressively shield itself from public scrutiny.
The tactics used have long been a part of modern animal agriculture, and it shows us how this was built, but it also shows vegans how they can fight back against this cruel industry.
Animal agriculture perpetuates many forms of denialism and both academics and advocates seek to find ways of helping us fight back against it.
This is an educational and interesting read for vegans who would like to learn more about the cruelties of the animal agriculture industry.
Every chapter was written by a different editor, and each chapter will use a slightly different format.
Some of the chapters here are simple and easy to understand, but others can be more difficult to understand.
A thriller that exposes how the animal agriculture industry uses rhetoric and misinformation to justify exploitation, deflect criticism, and maintain public support despite ethical and environmental concerns.
3. Sins of the Flesh by Rod Preece
For those concerned about human-animal relations, Sins of the Flesh looks at the history of the ethical dimensions, and it looks at the origins of humanity going up until today.
The ethical consideration of animals first began after the Aristotelian period of Ancient Greece. It occurred again during Ancient Rome.
This book looks at animals and our history of eating them.
You might buy this book if you would like to learn more about the foundations of animal rights and where it all came from.
One of the interesting things that this book points out was how it was a thing during Ancient Roman times, but it essentially disappeared for centuries after.
It wasn’t until the 19th century when vegetarian thought was revived again, but when the 20th century came around, it started to decline again.
A page turner that examines the historical and philosophical roots of Western attitudes toward meat consumption, challenging the moral justifications for eating animals.
4. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
Considered one of the classics, I couldn’t go without mentioning this one.
I liked this book because it takes a look at animal thinking in different species like crows, wasps, sheep, dolphins, chimpanzees, and bonobos.
This book will give you a real look at just how smart animals can actually be, and it will give you a new level of respect for them.
One of the biggest themes in this book is taking the time to get inside the minds of animals to better understand them.
This book will dismantle myths you might have had about humans being superior to animals, which Western culture teaches us by default.
When you look at the proof in this book, you might come to the conclusion that at a minimum, mammals and birds have the capabilities of intelligent thought and feeling pain.
A challenge to human assumptions about animal intelligence, revealing the complex cognitive abilities of various species and questioning our traditional understanding of intelligence.
5. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safron Foer
For much of his life, Jonathan Safron Foer would oscillate between being a voracious carnivore and the occasional vegetarian.
After he started a family, he began to see the moral implications of food more clearly, and he couldn’t explain why we eat some animals and love other animals.
This book is part memoir and part investigative report.
One of the cool things about this book is that it comes loaded with facts, but it keeps it educational without getting overly judgmental.
In other words, you’ll learn more than just “Eating meat is cruel.”
Whether you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or even a carnivore, this book contains some great information about meat that people should know.
An estimated 99% of the meat we eat in America comes from factory farms, which are inhumane and unsanitary.
Turning the pages to explore the ethical, environmental, and cultural implications of meat consumption, blending personal narrative with investigative journalism to challenge the morality of factory farming.
FINAL THOUGHTS
These are some great books that you could start with, but they are by no means the only books that you could read. You can choose from many vegan books since many have been written on the subject.
If there’s one you’ve read that you liked, please drop a comment below about it for an active discussion about the best books on veganism.
In our next article, we'll focus on some vegan cookbooks with tasty recipes to guide your vegan cooking, as well some books on vegan nutrition. We have also published some plant based recipes on our blog to inspire your plant based eating patterns.
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