Bellwether Histories
Animals, Humans, and US Environments in Crisis
Published on 20. June 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-295-75142-9 (ISBN)
Description
Explores ecological crises and extinctions that have shaped US history
A multispecies history of the globalized United States, Bellwether Histories reveals how animals have been ensnared in colonialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction as human decisions created and perpetuated untenable and unequal interspecies relationships. The collection's authors explore how people misunderstood or ignored animal crises precipitated by habitat destruction and population declines, sudden dependence on human aid, shifts from freedom to captivity, or subjection to overextended management systems.
Chapters address a range of themes, including the links between antislavery and anti-animal-cruelty advocacy; how cattle, horse, and pig behavior shaped human life and technology; and the politics of caring for and trafficking wild animals. This volume interrogates the history of animal disposability and its ideological twin in US history, human exceptionalism-the anthropocentric myth that people could harm animals without harming themselves.
Today's mass extinctions and ecological breakdowns ensure deadly zoonotic pandemics and global warming will harass us far into the future. Bellwether Histories looks back at how animals have been warning us of our collective fate and asks why they were so seldom heard.
A multispecies history of the globalized United States, Bellwether Histories reveals how animals have been ensnared in colonialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction as human decisions created and perpetuated untenable and unequal interspecies relationships. The collection's authors explore how people misunderstood or ignored animal crises precipitated by habitat destruction and population declines, sudden dependence on human aid, shifts from freedom to captivity, or subjection to overextended management systems.
Chapters address a range of themes, including the links between antislavery and anti-animal-cruelty advocacy; how cattle, horse, and pig behavior shaped human life and technology; and the politics of caring for and trafficking wild animals. This volume interrogates the history of animal disposability and its ideological twin in US history, human exceptionalism-the anthropocentric myth that people could harm animals without harming themselves.
Today's mass extinctions and ecological breakdowns ensure deadly zoonotic pandemics and global warming will harass us far into the future. Bellwether Histories looks back at how animals have been warning us of our collective fate and asks why they were so seldom heard.
Reviews / Votes
"[P]rovides an important reminder and even a blueprint for how all historians might contend with the experiences of animals and the consequences of human-animal relationships in the Anthropocene."(Environmental History) "Accessible and engaging, this volume would be of interest to environmental and United States history scholars and could be used in an American environmental history course. Each essay can stand on its own and various chapters could contribute to gender studies, western history, war and society, or other specialized scholarship and syllabi."
(Western Historical Quarterly) "Bellwether Histories as a whole provides a rich and generative contribution to the burgeoning field of "more-than-human histories.""
(H-Net Reviews)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
14 b&w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
381 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-75142-9 (9780295751429)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Susan Nance is professor of history at the University of Guelph and affiliated faculty with the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. She is author of three books, including Rodeo: An Animal History. Jennifer Marks is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Iowa and works as a technical writer in Portland, Oregon. Contributors: Vanessa Bateman, Joshua Abram Kercsmar, John M. Kinder, Jennifer Marks, Susan Nance, Andrea Ringer, Mary Trachsel, and Jessica Wang
Content
Preface
Introduction: The Mule in the Coal Mine
1. Interspecies Anticapitalism in English and American Humanitarian Writings, ca. 1800-1850
Joshua Abram Kercsmar
2. Chicago's 1872 Equine Influenza Epizootic and the Evolution of Urban Transit Technology
Jennifer G. Marks
3. Cattle and Blizzards: Lessons from the Big Die-Up in 1880s Montana
Susan Nance
4. Animal Photography and the "Elk Problem" in Modern Wyoming
Vanessa Bateman
5. Animals, Infrastructure, and Empire: Insects and Birds as Biological Control Agents in Early Twentieth-Century Hawai'i
Jessica Wang
6. Captive Breeding and the Commodification of "Surplus" Animals at the Central Park Zoo, 1886-1974
Andrea Ringer
7. The Destructive Ecology of Human-Pig Relations in Iowa since 1950
Mary Trachsel
8. "The Next Meal for the Lions": The US Occupation of the Baghdad Zoo, 2003-2004
John M. Kinder
List of Contributors
Index
Introduction: The Mule in the Coal Mine
1. Interspecies Anticapitalism in English and American Humanitarian Writings, ca. 1800-1850
Joshua Abram Kercsmar
2. Chicago's 1872 Equine Influenza Epizootic and the Evolution of Urban Transit Technology
Jennifer G. Marks
3. Cattle and Blizzards: Lessons from the Big Die-Up in 1880s Montana
Susan Nance
4. Animal Photography and the "Elk Problem" in Modern Wyoming
Vanessa Bateman
5. Animals, Infrastructure, and Empire: Insects and Birds as Biological Control Agents in Early Twentieth-Century Hawai'i
Jessica Wang
6. Captive Breeding and the Commodification of "Surplus" Animals at the Central Park Zoo, 1886-1974
Andrea Ringer
7. The Destructive Ecology of Human-Pig Relations in Iowa since 1950
Mary Trachsel
8. "The Next Meal for the Lions": The US Occupation of the Baghdad Zoo, 2003-2004
John M. Kinder
List of Contributors
Index