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"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"--
List of contents
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
About the author
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
