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THE ZOO

Name: THE ZOO
Author: Isobel Charman
ISBN: 978-1-68177-356-8

THE WILD AND WONDERFUL TALE OF THE FOUNDING OF THE LONDON ZOO: 1824-1852

by Isobel Charman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2017

A deeply researched, terrifically entertaining exploration of the London Zoo “through the eyes of some of the people who...

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A whimsical work revisiting the English gentlemen of the early- to mid-19th century who envisioned the first Zoological Society of London.

London-based TV producer and author Charman (The Great War: A Nation’s Story, 2014, etc.) delves into an eclectic cast of characters who created London’s first ZSL in 1826. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, returning home from a grueling stint in Singapore with the East India Company, resolved to create for London its own Jardin des Plantes, like the one he and his wife had admired in Paris. It would be, he decided, “a place of science, of investigation, of knowledge.” A member of the Royal Society, Raffles galvanized the new ZSL and obtained the land for such a venture in The Regent’s Park, designed by John Nash and located in the north of London. Upon Raffles’ death in 1826, the young architect Decimus Burton took over the challenging project, which included the designing of buildings over five acres where “humans could comfortably, elegantly, enjoyably observe creatures.” Indeed, writes Charman, Burton “was building for mankind, rather than for beasts,” and it was a huge hit, open to the public for one shilling per head in 1828. It soon expanded through a tunnel taking visitors elegantly from one side of the road to the other (more illustrations or a map would have been welcome). In her charming, engaging narrative, the author deftly assumes the points of view of her characters, in the spirit of a Victorian novelist. These included the first medical attendant, Charles Spooner, who was eventually dismissed because of the high mortality rate of the exotic animals (the wet, cold English winters were a detriment to many of them), and Charles Darwin, a corresponding member of the ZSL when he returned from his Beagle exploration in 1836, keen to observe the animals himself.

A deeply researched, terrifically entertaining exploration of the London Zoo “through the eyes of some of the people who made it happen.”

Pub Date: April 11, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-68177-356-8

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

Categories:

HISTORY | MODERN | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY

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ROBERT E. LEE

A BIOGRAPHY

by Emory M. Thomas ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

Well written and based largely on primary documentation, a good effort at understanding a complex personality.

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A comprehensive new biography that seeks to give a balanced portrait of the famed Confederate general.

Thomas (History/Univ. of Georgia; The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience, not reviewed) undertakes a daunting task here, seeking to recover the real, living human from the mythology surrounding Lee since his death in 1870. In this effort he hews a middle ground between early 20th century hagiographies and revisionist contemporary interpretations. Born in 1807, Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Light Horse Harry Lee; but he never knew his father, who was sent to debtor's prison when the boy was only 2 years old and died when he was 11. Attending West Point, the younger Lee was second in his class and graduated without accruing a single demerit. After fighting valorously and decisively during the Mexican War, and suppressing abolitionist John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, Lee became military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and later a field commander as the Civil War broke out. After the Confederate defeat, he was named president of Washington College (today Washington and Lee) and sought to transform it into a first-rate liberal arts school. As presented by Thomas, Lee was possessed of very human flaws. He considered himself a failure and was disappointed in his children. Although he viewed slavery as evil, he nonetheless owned slaves and believed in whites' innate superiority to blacks. His extreme inability to confront either superiors or subordinates often resulted in tragedy, as at the disatrous Battle of the Wilderness, which Lee knew he couldn't win but undertook because he didn't want to argue with Jefferson Davis. Lee considered restraint, discipline, and self-mastery the greatest virtues; Thomas candidly shows their negative aspects as well.

Well written and based largely on primary documentation, a good effort at understanding a complex personality.

Pub Date: May 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-393-03730-4

Page Count: 576

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

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THE CULTURE OF HOPE

A NEW BIRTH OF THE CLASSICAL SPIRIT

by Frederick Turner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1995

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Turner recycles some material from earlier university press books for this, his grand synthesis that promises to overcome the stalemate in the culture wars. Proponent of a ``third way'' or ``centrist'' position, Turner (Arts and Humanities/Univ. of Texas, Dallas) rehearses the standard complaints about our culture in crisis. Unlike traditional conservatives, though, he ventures a prescription that goes beyond nostalgia for faith and values. A sober critic of the so-called avant-garde, Turner posits a ``radical center''—``a return to classical forms, genres and techniques in the arts'' that is grounded in the latest research in anthropology and science. Turner fancies his ``reconstructive postmodernism'' a new paradigm on the intellectual horizon, and it's hard to imagine anyone familiar with all the disciplines he brings together in this fascinating, if exhausting, book. A cogent critic of anti-foundationalist thought (be it feminist, Marxist, or linguistic), Turner reaffirms the need for hierarchy in the arts, for logic over force, and for beauty over relativism. His multiculturalism is truly pan-cultural, discovering the transcendent in all cultures. Turner's idea of a ``natural classicism'' is remarkably transparent—he locates classical forms in nature itself. Some of his other ideas are a bit obscure, and his tendency toward unrelieved abstraction will turn off sympathetic readers. Turner's immediate cure for cultural malaise is nothing less than a four-page manifesto that is certain to provoke debate, and his discussion of biology is sure to be used against him, despite his distinctly un-``bell curvish'' ideas. Turner's fictional ``fable for the future''—a brave new world that resembles the utopian cyberspace of the Tofflers—flirts with kookiness. A superb critic of trendy feminist and multicultural ideas, Turner deserves a hearing in the ongoing debate: He's Apollo to Camille Paglia's Dionysus.