Description
Book SynopsisThey often lived lives of apparent desperation.
Trade ReviewSusan Nance's new book will appeal to those interested in the circus business, general lovers of the circus itself and its history, and lovers of elephants themselves and how they are treated, for better or for worse. -- Stephen Goddard History Wire - Where the Past Comes Alive If you are a true lover of elephants... then you must add this book to your collection. -- Elizabeth Franklin Portland Book Review This book explores aspects of nineteenth-century American society and culture from an original and fascinating perspective. It is a worthy contribtuion to the burgeoning scholarship on the history of human-animal relationships. -- Virginia DeJohn Anderson American Historical Review Theoretically sophisticated, exhaustively researched, and elegantly composed, Entertaining Elephants will appeal to a broad range of readers, who will find themselves thinking in new ways about not only circuses, but also the myriad other human-animal relationships in American consumer culture, past and present, from rodeos, zoos, and aquariums to meat, pets, Disney characters, and other fictional animals. -- Laura Barraclough American Studies Susan Nance's study Entertaining Elephants: Animal Agency and the Business of the American Circus is an example of how pleasing a mix of cultural history and animal studies is when an author combines them well. H-Net Reviews Overall, Entertaining Elephants is an enjoyable work that should appeal to those who are interested in cultural or animal history. It will also fit well into any animal or American studies class. However, it will provide most use to scholars who are looking for insightful studies that give agency to those that the historical record too often forgets. H-Net Reviews
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Turning the Circus Inside Out
1. Why Elephants in the Early Republic?
2. Becoming an Elephant "Actor"
3. Learning to Take Direction
4. Punishing Bull Elephants
5. Herd Management in the Gilded Age
6. Going Off Script
7. Animal Cultures Lost in the Circus, Then and Now
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
