Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
On a rainy day in May 1988, a lowland gorilla named Willie B. stepped outdoors for the first time in twenty-seven years, into a new landscape immersion exhibit. Born in Africa, Willie B. had been captured by an animal collector and sold to a zoo. During the decades he spent in a cage, zoos stopped collecting animals from the wild and Americans changed the ways they wished to view animals in the zoo. Zoos developed new displays to simulate landscapes like the Amazon River basin and African forests. Exhibits similar to animals' natural habitats began to replace old-fashioned animal houses.
But such displays are only the most recent effort of zoos to present their audiences with an authentic experience of nature. Since the first zoological park opened in the United States in Philadelphia in 1874, zoos have promised their visitors a journey into the natural world. And for more than a century they have been popular places for education and recreation: every year more than 130 million Americans go to zoos to look at the animals and enjoy a day outdoors. The first book-length history of American zoos, Animal Attractions examines the meaning of nature in the city by looking at the ways zoos have assembled and displayed their animal collections. Situated literally and culturally in the American middle landscape, zoos are concrete expressions of longstanding tensions between wildness and civilization, science and popular culture, education and entertainment. In their efforts to promote nature appreciation, they reveal much about how our culture envisions the natural world and the human place in it and how these ideas have changed.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0691117705
ISBN13:9780691117706
Release Date:February 2004
Publisher:Princeton University Press
Length:256 Pages
Weight:0.82 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.6" x 9.1"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
the History of Zoos
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Excellent. An engaging read and a well-balanced critique of zoos (primarily American zoos) over the past 100-odd years. The debate over animal rights is covered throughout, primarily as a progression of measures. Also, the view of zoos as humane/inhumane places for animal life is quite an old debate, as shown well here. Recommended for both students of museology and casual readers.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
