This book shakes the core of your beliefs on health and diet, but only if you're open-minded enough to comprehend it. Henry Stephens Salt, considered to be the "father of animal rights" and one of the first to write in favour of Vegetarianism, structures a sound argument against flesh-eating in this short and insightful read. He tackles the subject from economic, moral, and medical perspectives, claiming that we're driven to eat meat by forces of tradition and a lucrative industry. Now that the world is witnessing more vegetarians than ever before, it's quite telling to read what Salt had to say about it over a century ago, when Vegetarianism was considered by many to be nothing more than sheer madness. "It can do no harm to my readers if they hear what can be said in favour of Vegetarianism; then, if they are not persuaded to adopt a fleshless diet, they will have a clear conscience, and be able to enjoy their beef and mutton all the more afterwards." "It is a mournful fact that when people have no wish to understand a thing, they can generally contrive to misunderstand it." "I believe that future and wiser generations will look back with amazement on the habit of flesh-eating as a strange relic of ignorance and barbarism."