Noble Cows and Hybrid Zebras

Over the past two decades, Harriet Ritvo has established herselfas a leading scholar in animal studies and one of those most responsible forestablishing this field of study as a crucial part of environmental and socialhistory. Her two well-known books, The Platypus and the Mermaid and The AnimalEsta [...]
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Over the past two decades, Harriet Ritvo has established herselfas a leading scholar in animal studies and one of those most responsible forestablishing this field of study as a crucial part of environmental and socialhistory. Her two well-known books, The Platypus and the Mermaid and The AnimalEstate, did much to introduce and illuminate the importance of nonhuman animals tothe study of human culture. Hunting and husbandry, as well as petkeeping andzoo-going, forge powerful connections between animal lives and those of humans: infact, animals have helped define what a human is. They have also been one of themost reliable measures of humans' disproportionate influence on the environment.From domestication to extinction, the human impact on animal populations has beenprofound. In the essays collected in "Noble Cowsand Hybrid Zebras, " Ritvo explores our attitudes toward animals, from cruelty to sentimentality to the indifference of pure practicality, and toucheson many social and scientific issues, including genetic engineering and an animalprotection movement much older than most readers would think (animal advocacy was acause embraced by many Victorians). While Ritvo's writingrepresents the cutting edge in animal history, it has always been characterized byits accessibility, and these essays originally appeared not only in scholarlyjournals but also in Grand Street, Daedalus, and American Scholar. Collected for thefirst time in a single volume, they reveal an important dimension of human historyby looking to those other creatures that have surrounded us allalong.