The animal game : searching for wildness at the American zoo /

The animal game : searching for wildness at the American zoo /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Bender, Daniel E., author.
Imprint:Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016.
©2016
Description:393 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Language:English
Subject:
Zoos -- United States -- History.
Zoos -- Employees.
Wild animal trade -- History.
Endangered species -- History.
Endangered species.
Wild animal trade.
Zoos.
Zoos -- Employees.
United States.
History.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10904170
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780674737341
0674737342
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:Over the twentieth century, as wild, tropical animals became familiar attractions in urban American zoos, they became rare in the wild. Americans who made zoos the nation's most popular attractions, developed closer knowledge of tropical animals, especially those from regions colonized by American and European powers. Founded as a living taxonomy of exotic nature, such zoos never achieved the biological and social order their founders so cherished. Workers, animals, and visitors did not behave in ways that matched zoo officials' or founders' visions. Tourists fed the animals, littered, even poached. They sought tales of animal adventure more than science lessons. This book examines the development of zoos and the animal trade that supplied them and how they were both buffeted by global politics, imperialism, revolution, and war. Through the paradox of animals that were endangered yet familiar and entwined in our daily lives, "Animal Empire" fosters a dialogue between those charged with conserving the future, those concerned about the effects of the past, and those who gaze at zoo animals and wonder about places, nature, and people they are unlikely ever to see in person. Through zoos, we have learned to look at faraway places, environments, and peoples through the lens of endangered animals. Animal and human lives dramatically collided in the twentieth century and "Animal Empire" is a global history as it appeared at the zoo through the life and death of the animals, the keepers who mucked out their cages and reared their young, the traders who captured animals and the imagination of the American public, and the zoo officials who have helped make the idea of animal endangerment a key indictment of our contemporary civilization.--
Review by Choice Review

Bender (history, Univ. of Toronto, Canada) provides a high-level history of urban zoos in the 20th-century US. Sourced from the libraries and archives of several zoos, this book and its supplemental digital content shine a light on zoo history that was previously kept private. The book tracks the progression of zoos from educational exhibits and urban points of pride to parks for entertaining children, troubling prisons of captive animals that reflect the decline of the cities around them, and sprawling parks striving to balance the comfort of animals, the appearance of nature, and the entertainment of visitors. Themes include zoos' ties to imperialism; game hunters, animal traders, trainers, and other sometimes seedy individuals who made their fortunes via zoos; the gendered nature of zoo labor; and the meanings of rarity and wildness. The structure of the book forms a somewhat disjointed narrative that can make it difficult for readers to orient themselves in time. Readers should also consider Irus Braverman's Zooland: The Institution of Captivity (CH, Jul'13, 50-6182), which provides a complementary view of the current and historical role of zoos from a number of perspectives. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Jessica R. Page, Ohio State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review

Purchased from the Esther A. Kraus Book Fund bookplate
The John Crerar Library bookplate

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