‘A Cultural History of Animals’ covers 4,500 years of Human-Animal Interaction

Hartford, Conn. - A Cultural History of Animals was recently selected for a Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title.   The six-volume project on the history of human-animal relations covers 4,500 years of human-animal interaction, from ancient times to the present.  Kathleen Kete, Associate Professor of History at Trinity, edited volume 6 of the award-winning series, the volume specifically focusing on The Empire Age, which covers the period of 1800 through 1920.

Each volume has the same structure, with chapters analyzing the same issues and themes for each time period.  Each volume explores: the sacred and the symbolic (totem, sacrifice, status and popular beliefs); hunting; domestication (taming, breeding, labor and companionship); entertainment and exhibitions (the menagerie, zoos, circuses and carnivals); science and specimens (research, education, collections and museums); philosophical beliefs; and artistic representations. The set is arguably the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on animals through history.

Kete, who has been a Trinity faculty member since 1990, earned undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate degrees at Harvard University, and has been published extensively on the subject of animals, and specifically, animal rights.  Kete specializes in European history, a topic in which she has taught several courses at Trinity. She is currently teaching various courses on European history, including a course entitled: Animals and Ideology in Europe and America, 1600 to the present. 

Kete’s volume, A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire, explores the cultural position of animals in the period from 1800 to 1920. This was a time of extraordinary social, political and economic change as the Western world rapidly industrialized and modernized. The Enlightenment had attempted to define the human self; the Age of Empire pulled animals and humans further apart.

 “A Cultural History of Animals presents an innovative and compelling introduction to current scholarship about the historical relationships between people and other animals,” Harriet Ritvo, Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commented about the series.

 “An innovative and ambitious project that synthesizes knowledge of animals as living creatures and their symbolic representations…an invaluable contribution to our understanding…A combination of surprise and entertainment with serious research gives these volumes a place in the best tradition of accessible science…,” Bernd Hüppauf, Professor of German at New York University, said about A Cultural History of Animals.

The series, published by Berg Publishers, is available for purchase (ISBN 9781845204969).  For more information, visit: http://www.bergpublishers.com/?tabid=2488.

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