Though reminding us of the cruelties still visited upon animals and insisting that we respect them anew—not merely as pets...
Fagan (Emeritus, Anthropology/Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara; The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels, 2013, etc.) brings consummate skill to this frequently horrifying study of humanity's interaction with animals.
The author considers his book a purely historical inquiry, not simply an account of how our relationships to Earth's other inhabitants have changed over 2.5 million years, but how our interdependent relationships with eight mammals—dogs, goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, cattle, camels and horses—have profoundly shaped human history. Fagan notes that the very word “animal” has roots in the Latin term anima, or “soul.” He then reveals how early humans defined their world in terms of the animals that were potent ritual partners and discusses how animals went from being respected as individuals to the modern commodification of select species as work animals and food. Eventually, traditional hunting, subsistence farming and husbandry yielded to systematic agriculture, large-scale herding, permanent settlements, cities and the Industrial Revolution. But the story is subtler and more involved than a partnership-to-exploitation narrative, involving not only Western concepts of animals as human possessions, but also a fundamental, distancing shift in humankind's relationship to the natural environment. Fagan ably explains the various mentalities and contradictions inherent in that story, and he studies a priceless archive of memory, embodied in legend and folklore, regarding associations between animals and people before wholesale domestication became subjugation. Still, our understanding of the factors that transformed wild creatures into domestic beasts owes much to conjecture and interpretation, something Fagan is keen to point out. His analysis, however, is sound, the product of an accomplished archaeological and anthropological background.
Though reminding us of the cruelties still visited upon animals and insisting that we respect them anew—not merely as pets or idealized creatures of the wild—Fagan offers no resolutions to our conflicting attitudes toward them, but his compelling, cohesive book calls for further enlightenment.Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1620405727
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
This new biography attempts not only to chronicle Edison's achievements but to set him in the context of his time. It falls short on both counts. Thomas Edison remains, more than 60 years after his death, the quintessential American genius. The electric light alone earned him a central spot in the pantheon of inventors. Add to it the phonograph, motion pictures, and over 1,000 patents for everything from an electric pen to a method for enriching iron ore, and it's no wonder Baldwin (Man Ray, 1988) seems overwhelmed by his subject. Fiercely competitive, Edison was a workaholic long before the term was invented. His first wife, Mary (who died an early death), rarely saw him. He would work 60 hours straight on a project that caught his fancy and frequently juggled four or five ongoing projects at once. His genius for assembling a team of men totally dedicated to his goals—and willing to delegate all the glory to the ``Old Man''—was surpassed only by his genius for promotion. (The incandescent light was far less significant than his convincing the world that his system, and only his, was the light of the future.) Baldwin does present an Edison more complex than the Horatio Alger template into which his contemporaries wanted to fit his life, but he never quite manages to pull together the various strands of his portrait. The reader gets only perfunctory descriptions of Edison's early inventions and how they were received, let alone any insight into how he was able to convince others to back his projects or to join his team, before the phonograph made him world-famous. Like many eminent Victorians, Edison was a fascinating monster, and Baldwin captures some of both the fascination and the monstrosity; but one comes away from the book feeling that the best part of the story remains untold. (50 b&w photos, unseen)
Pub Date: Feb. 9, 1995
ISBN: 0-7868-6041-3
Page Count: 534
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A study, Buckley writes, that was 14 years in the making—and it shows. Well-written, vigorous, and aptly titled, this...
A first-rate history of African-Americans in the military.
Journalist Buckley, daughter of singer Lena Horne, comes from a long line of soldiers who took part in the Revolution, the Indian Wars, WWI, and other conflicts throughout American history. As Buckley writes, African-Americans were generally made to feel unwelcome (if useful cannon fodder) in the military between the years of the Revolution and the Korean War, when President Truman formally integrated the armed services. Buckley begins her sweeping narrative with the black fighters of the Revolution, ignored in standard history texts but honored by the likes of Washington and Jefferson in their time for having “knocked the British about lively.” Among the other early, forgotten patriots of whom she writes is Joseph Savary, a hero of the War of 1812 who helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans; having been ordered not to take part in the victory parade, he angrily denounced American racism and logged time in the pirate trade with Jean Lafitte before heading south to join Simon Bolivar's army. Another is William Carney, who fought with the 55th Massachusetts (the sister regiment of the storied and bloodied 54th) and was the first black fighter to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Most of Buckley's narrative, however, is given to events of the 20th century, from WWI to the invasion of Iraq; a key figure in her text is Colin Powell, who rose through the officer corps to assume a key leadership role in the military (and is now the Secretary of State). If there is an overarching theme to Buckley's narrative, it is that military service offered African-Americans a means of improving their lives; “by helping make history,” she writes, “they fought racism” and overcame prejudices in other branches of society.
A study, Buckley writes, that was 14 years in the making—and it shows. Well-written, vigorous, and aptly titled, this deserves the widest possible readership.Pub Date: May 22, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-50279-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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