Description
Book SynopsisA fascinating look at how a commercial market for birds in the late nineteenth century set the stage for conservation and its legislation. Between the end of the Civil War and the 1920s, the United States witnessed the creation, rapid expansion, and then disappearance of a commercial market for hunted wild animals. The bulk of commercial wildlife sales in the last part of the nineteenth century were of wildfowl, who were prized not only for their eggs and meat but also for their beautiful feathers. Wild birds were brought to cities in those years to be sold as food for customers' tables, decorations for ladies' hats, treasured pets, and specimens for collectors' cabinets. Though relatively short-lived, this market in birds was broadly influential, its rise and fall coinciding with the birth of the Progressive Era conservation movement. In The Market in Birds, historian Andrea L. Smalley and wildlife biologist Henry M. Reeves illuminate this crucial chapter in American environmental h
Trade ReviewAn insightful, exhaustive look at how industrialization led to rapid commercial exploitation of many bird species during the late 19th century... It's thorough and original, and will help to better understand present-day North American wildlife conservation and the challenges it faces.
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Cool Green ScienceTable of ContentsForeword
Prologue. For the Birds
1. The Hunter
2. The Dealer
3. The Hunted
4. The Sportsman
5. The Criminal
6. The Conservationist
Epilogue. The Culture of Conservation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
