Insects are the form of life most alien to us. Across millennia, insects have been providers and sources of food as well as feared vectors of infection. Particular insect types have come to be associated with beauty, diligence, and social and divine order, whilst others have become symbols of invasion, disease, and social decay. Today, insects are used to create luxury goods, to pollinate crops, to color political rhetoric, and to contribute to modern-day logistics, genetics, and forensics. A Cultural History of Insects reveals how our relationship with insects – in life and in death – is one of our most productive and intimate.

The work is divided into 6 volumes, with each volume covering the same topics, so readers can either study a period/volume or follow a topic across history. The 6 volumes cover: Antiquity (c.1000 BCE-500 CE); the Medieval Age (500-1300); the Renaissance (1300-1600); the Age of Enlightenment (1600-1820); the Age of Industry (1820-1920); the Modern Age (1920-present).

Themes (and chapter titles) are: insect knowledge; insects and disease; insects and food; insect products; insects in mythology and religion; insects as symbols; insects in literature and language; and insects in art.

The page extent for the pack is approximately 1572pp. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors and an Introduction and concludes with Notes, Bibliography, and an Index.