Pets in America
eBook - ePub

Pets in America

A History

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Pets in America

A History

About this book

Entertaining and informative, Pets in America is a portrait of Americans' relationships with the cats, dogs, birds, fishes, rodents, and other animals we call our own. More than 60 percent of U.S. households have pets, and America grows more pet-friendly every day. But as Katherine C. Grier demonstrates, the ways we talk about and treat our pets--as companions, as children, and as objects of beauty, status, or pleasure--have their origins long ago.

Grier begins with a natural history of animals as pets, then discusses the changing role of pets in family life, new standards of animal welfare, the problems presented by borderline cases such as livestock pets, and the marketing of both animals and pet products. She focuses particularly on the period between 1840 and 1940, when the emotional, behavioral, and commercial characteristics of contemporary pet keeping were established. The story is filled with the warmth and humor of anecdotes from period diaries, letters, catalogs, and newspapers.

Filled with illustrations reflecting the whimsy, the devotion, and the commerce that have shaped centuries of American pet keeping, Pets in America ultimately shows how the history of pets has evolved alongside changing ideas about human nature, child development, and community life.

This book accompanies a museum exhibit, "Pets in America," which opens at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, in December 2005 and will travel to five other cities from May 2006 through May 2008.

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Yes, you can access Pets in America by Katherine C. Grier in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction. A Modern Pet Owner
  7. 1. A Natural History of Pets
  8. 2. At Home with Animals
  9. 3. The Domestic Ethic of Kindness to Animals
  10. 4. The Edges of Pet Keeping and Its Dilemmas
  11. 5. A Pet in Every Home
  12. 6. Buying for Your Best Friend
  13. Epilogue. One View on Pets in Modern America
  14. Notes
  15. Index