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Pets in America: A History, by Katherine C. Grier
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Entertaining and informative, Pets in America is a portrait of Americans' relationships with the cats, dogs, birds, fishes, rodents, and other animals we call our own. More than 60 percent of U. S. households have pets, and America grows more pet-friendly every day. But as Katherine C. Grier demonstrates, the ways we talk about and treat our pets--as companions, as children, and as objects of beauty, status, or pleasure--have their origins long ago. Grier begins with a natural history of animals as pets, then discusses the changing role of pets in family life, new standards of animal welfare, the problems presented by borderline cases such as livestock pets, and the marketing of both animals and pet products. She focuses particularly on the period between 1840 and 1940, when the emotional, behavioral, and commercial characteristics of contemporary pet keeping were established. The story is filled with the warmth and humor of anecdotes from period diaries, letters, catalogs, and newspapers. Filled with illustrations reflecting the whimsy, the devotion, and the commerce that have shaped centuries of American pet keeping, Pets in America ultimately shows how the history of pets has evolved alongside changing ideas about human nature, child development, and community life. This book accompanies a museum exhibit, "Pets in America", which opens at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, in December 2005 and will travel to five other cities from May 2006 through May 2008.
- Sales Rank: #2082943 in Books
- Published on: 2015-01-01
- Released on: 2015-01-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .98" w x 6.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 392 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In an encyclopedic history, Grier describes the changing cultural sensibilities that have defined the experience of American pet owners from colonial times to the present. Grier, an expert on material culture at the Winterthur Museum (one of several museums that will display a traveling exhibition of the same title), draws on diaries, magazines, advice books, illustrations and photographs for this serious book reflecting the author's interest in the symbolic and metaphorical role pets play in our culture. Grier's definition of "pet" is broad and includes domestic animals like urban horses as well as chickens and pigs, which were routinely raised by children on farms as quasi-pets. Although she is primarily interested in human-animal relationships, Grier doesn't neglect the developing commercial multibillion-dollar pet industry (Ralston Purina, Grier relates, began as a livestock feed company, adding dog food only in 1926). Scholarly, thorough, informative and animal friendly as the book is, Grier would have made many readers even happier had she occasionally eschewed seriousness in favor of the rich satirical grounds the excesses of pet-ownership provide. B&w photos. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
[A] remarkably well-written, richly researched study.--Journal of Social History
This work explores the history of animal-human bonding in the context of a growing country with a diverse population. The narrative is entwined with the development of veterinary medicine, animal humane movements, and pet products. If the well-written prose is not enough, the illustrations provide a telling accent. . . . Although grounded in material evidence, the book introduces larger issues--philosophies of caring and belief that, despite enormous social and technological change, span centuries.--Bloomsbury Review
Scholars of the history of human-animal relations have eagerly anticipated this book, and the result exceeds expectations.--Journal of American History
Lucidly written and well-researched. . . . It is hard to imagine that Grier has left a stone unturned on a topic for which an exhaustive paper trail does not exist by her own admission. . . . [An] insightful and sensitive look at the two centuries that brought us to where we are now.--Antiques
Although [Pets in America's] six chapters can be read independently, they function best together as a sustained narrative that uses broad subjects . . . to probe not just our changing notions about animals but our changing definition of a good society. And because Grier, as she modestly puts it, is 'interested in stories,' her inquiries can be very entertaining. . . . Grier has a nice habit of tweaking a detail to make a larger point. . . . With her characteristic blend of seriousness and whimsy, Grier confesses to an interest in 'the tension between the apparent desire of American pet owners to experience the 'animal' in our pets . . . and our simultaneous and increasing desire to regulate and control our pets.--New York Times Book Review
A good social and cultural history of pet keeping in America . . . [A history] that will last us a while.-- Winterthur Portfolio
A fascinating look at the development, roles, and effects of pets in American society. . . . Provide[s] a wealth of . . . dependable information that any pet lover would appreciate.--Choice
Few scholars know more about the complex interactions between people and the animals that share their lives than Kasey Grier.--The Hunt
An encyclopedic history. . . . [Pets in America is] scholarly, thorough, informative and animal friendly.--Publishers Weekly
A welcome addition to the field.--American Historical Review
Review
For everybody who has experienced that special bond between human and companion animal, Grier has produced a wonderful book, full of careful scholarship and charming anecdotes, demonstrating that America's love affair with dogs and cats started long before 1950!--Andrew N. Rowan, Executive Vice President, Humane Society of the United States
This witty, richly illustrated, and entertaining book explores the relationships between humans and the animals who live with them. From Jumbo, the pet calf of Mark Twain's daughter, to Polly, the small green parrot shared by Ralph Waldo Emerson's children, from the 'gentlemen pigs' noticed by Dickens in the streets of New York to the 'Bunnie States of America' tended by a family of Albany children, wonderful animals populate its pages. The photographs, art works, and commercial products Americans created to commemorate their pet keeping open a fascinating window on our culture, past and present.--Joy Kasson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pets in America is a labor of love and a delight to read. Writing with great clarity and enthusiasm, Grier uses the history of pet keeping to expose the very heart and soul of middle-class America.--James A. Serpell, University of Pennsylvania
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Our "favorites"
By Jon Hunt
"Pets in America", an astonishingly comprehensive new book by Katherine C. Grier, relates the history of pets as we have known them from the earliest days of our nation. In doing so, she has given us a compelling look at the evolution of how different animals became popular pets, how we treat pets as a society and what their needs are compared to ours.
Grier begins by asking "what is a pet?" and then follows up with remarks about "why pets matter". She sets the stage for the reader to begin to view the animals we call "pets" (and what Americans in the nineteenth century called "favorites") in a different way than just furry little creatures that greet us upon our return home. One of the many surprises I found in reading "Pets in America" was that one hundred to one hundred fifty years ago the most popular pet to have was a caged bird. She explains part of the reason by saying that there was far less noise around then and songbirds added a cheerful level of volume that was most welcome in many homes.
While Grier's book understandably covers dogs, cats, birds and fish as the most common pets to find around the house, there is also a good deal of writing about livestock animals.....horses, swine, barnyard fowl and rabbits. There are many quotes from diarists of the 1800s and the most alluring ones come from children. Being much closer to "pets as dinner" she quotes a few girls who couldn't stand the thought of losing a newborn calf or lamb, knowing that it would end up on someone's dinner table....possibly their own. There's also a charming section on "the Bunnie States of America"....a club set up in 1898 by the children of an Albany, New York couple who had rules and regulations for their club, held meetings and wrote of the happenings of their beloved rabbits.
Grier takes an awful lot of time in the middle of the book describing the liberal goodness of the upper middle class and their views toward treating animals with kindness and respect. Although she presents her case effectively, it is the one place where "Pets in America" bogs down a little but she picks right up again with a chapter titled, "Pet keeping and its dilemmas". As animals moved closer to humans with their increased indoor contact, boundaries necessitated change. Understandably, at the same time, livestock became more foreign to many Americans with the advent of the automobile, as horses were decreasingly necessary for transportation. However, Grier describes in great detail what city life was like prior to that with pigs running through the streets, chickens cackling in many a backyard and the undeniable stench of horse manure. The seemy side of pet life....those who dealt in the selling, trading and butchering of pets is a terrific addition to the work. It's hard to believe, sometimes, that we are just a few generations removed from all of that.
The author finishes up with a look at the twentieth century arrival (on a large scale) of pet stores, pet food and other accoutrements such as "clothing" and bedding. There is not much about veterinary medicine in this book other to say that in earlier times, a pet's best caregiver (and often its only doctor) was its owner.
Many wonderful, early photographs and drawings accompany "Pets in America". It's a welcome addition to a fantastic book. I highly recommend "Pets in America" for its depth and incisiveness and I applaud Katherine Grier for combining a straightforward analysis with an outstanding narrative.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
For all who have a four-legged best friend
By Armchair Interviews
It's true that Americans love their pets. Ask anyone at school or work and your will usually get quite a story about the family pet. Katherine Grier's Pets in America: A History is a wonderful attempt to trace the history of pets in America. It is ironic to see how the social development of Americans so closely parallels the sociological importance of our pets.
This book is absolutely recommended for you or the pet lover in your life. It is filled with little pithy facts about pet ownership down through the ages. For instance, I was pleasantly surprised to read of George Washington's hounds and the level to which his personal correspondence referenced them.
Pet ownership has existed in some form since the 1500s and continues to grow in popularity. I found it intriguing how much of pet inclusion is tied directly to our sociological evolution. For instance, our incorporation of pets into photographs directly corresponds to American's desire to share memories with their posterity. The modern purveyor of the digital camera doesn't even give Fluffy a second thought to being included in a photo spread.
Grier also shares the realities for capitalism which increasing pet ownership brought to America. In some of these sections the minutiae will creep to the surface. You would be ill advised to sit down and read it in a few sittings. I did this and found myself absorbed in the details.
Instead, read this book in small chunks. It is filled with incredible information about pet ownership - and every pet lover will find it a must have for their library. George Bernard Shaw said it best: "Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends." I wouldn't recommend you eat your pets - but I do recommend you read this book.
Armchair Interviews says: This is a yummy book!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A Fascinating Account
By Kim Stallwood
Katherine F. Grier’s Pets in America is a fascinating account of how our patterns of behaviour have changed over three centuries with regard to the species we live with and the reasons we do so.
In the 1700s and 1800s, Americans shared their homes and properties, as well as the city streets where they lived, with a greater number of species (e.g., cats, dogs, cows, chickens, pigs, horses) than we do today even though ‘more than 60 percent of American households contained pet animals.’ (p. 315)
In this country’s short history, the numbers of animals, companions or otherwise, that it has consumed is beyond comprehension. For example, Grier notes that the number of canaries imported into the U.S. was ‘more than 20,000 in the decade before 1853, 10,000 in 1853 alone, and 20,000 each year by 1867.’ (p. 241)
America’s pets is big business, which Grier charts with great detail over the centuries. Surprisingly, today, she states that as a ‘percentage of the entire American economy, with a $10.4 trillion gross domestic product in 2002, the pet industry is small [$34.4 billion].’ (p. 316)
Nonetheless, all these millions of animals who were seen to be a ’fancy’ — an earlier term for a pet or companion animal, they are all individual animals each one with a unique personality. Indeed, one of the most interesting aspects to Grier’s book is how she charts the transition from the anonymity, if you will, of the chickens and pigs who people used to live alongside with to the emergence of a ’biography’ and identity for those animals who became people’s pets. She quotes many fascinating accounts written over the years about how people described their relationship with the animals they lived with.
In the course of this history, Grier refers to the emergence of humane attitudes, including in fiction (e.g., Black Beauty by Anna Sewell) and education, and the origins of animal control and the animal protection movement, including the ASPCA. There is also an important narrative on the development of the pet food and supplies industry.
This is an important book for animal advocates and animal scholars to read. It makes an major contribution to our understanding of how and why our relationship with those animals who we designate as ‘pets’ is a mess.
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