| Animal Modernity: Jumbo the Elephant and the Human Dilemma 2015 Edition Contributor(s): Nance, Susan (Author) |
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ISBN: 1137562064 ISBN-13: 9781137562067 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $52.24 Product Type: Hardcover Published: October 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Great Britain - General - History | Modern - 19th Century - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 304.3 |
| LCCN: 2016427607 |
| Physical Information: 0.44" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (0.65 lbs) 102 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The concept of 'modernity' is central to many disciplines, but what is modernity to animals? Susan Nance answers this question through a radical reinterpretation of the life of Jumbo the elephant. In the 1880s, consumers, the media, zoos, circuses and taxidermists, and (unknowingly) Jumbo himself, transformed the elephant from an orphan of the global ivory trade and zoo captive into a distracting international celebrity. Citizens on two continents imaged Jumbo as a sentient individual and pet, but were aghast when he died in an industrial accident and his remains were absorbed by the taxidermic and animal rendering industries reserved for anonymous animals. The case of Jumbo exposed the 'human dilemma' of modern living, wherein people celebrated individual animals to cope or distract themselves from the wholesale slaughter of animals required by modern consumerism. |
