People thinking that vegetarianism is a modern movement of the 21st century will be surprised to know that this philosophy of life has deep roots in history and was quite popular at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The author of the book Howard Williams gives an account of vegetarianism from antiquity to his contemporaries in the 19th century. Remarkably, world-famous writer Leo Tolstoy prepared the Russian translation of this book.