Although the animal may be, as Nietzsche argued, ahistorical, living completely in the present, it nonetheless plays a crucial role in human history. The fascination with animals that leads not only to a desire to observe and even live alongside them, but to capture or kill them, is found in all civilizations. The essays collected in Beastly Natures show how animals have been brought into human culture, literally helping to build our societies (as domesticated animals have done) or contributing, often in problematic ways, to our concept of the wild. The book begins with a group of essays that approach the historical relevance of human-animal relations seen from the perspectives of various disciplines and suggest ways in which animals might be brought into formal studies of history. Differences in species and location can greatly affect the shape of human-animal interaction, and so the essays that follow address a wide spectrum of topics, including the demanding fate of the working horse, the complex image of the American alligator (at turns a dangerous predator and a tourist attraction), the zoo gardens of Victorian England, the iconography of the rhinoceros and the preference it reveals in society for myth over science, relations between humans and wolves in Europe, and what we can learn from society's enthusiasm for "political" animals, such as the pets of the American presidents and the Soviet Union's "space dogs." Taken together, these essays suggest new ways of looking not only at animals but at human history. Contributors Mark V. Barrow Jr., Virginia Tech * Peter Edwards, Roehampton University * Kelly Enright, Rutgers University * Oliver Hochadel, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona * Uwe Lubken, Rachel Carson Center, Munich * Garry Marvin, Roehampton University * Clay McShane, Northeastern University * Amy Nelson, Virginia Tech * Susan Pearson, Northwestern University * Helena Pycior, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Nigel Rothfels, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * Joel A. Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University * Mary Weismantel, Northwestern University

The global smash-hit Netflix documentary mini-series, Tiger King, introduced viewers to the weird, crazy and chaotic life of private zoo owner and big cat breeder, Joe Exotic, and his war against Carole Baskin. Baskin, who runs the Big Cat Rescue in Florida, a sanctuary for abused and abandoned wild cats, waged a long legal battle to have Joe's exotic animal park in Oklahoma shut down for the maltreatment of his animals. But Carole had her own dark past and Joe wasn't going down without a fight; he responded by plotting to have her murdered. Tiger Wars delves deeper into this stranger-than-fiction tale and tells the shocking story of this big cat war, the cult-like characters involved and the spiral of obsession that landed Joe Exotic in jail and exposed the dark heart of America's big cat obsession.

Have you ever found a body on the beach?Recently widowed Libby Forest arrives in the small coastal town of Exham-on-Sea, keen to start a new life baking cakes and designing chocolates. Walking on the beach one stormy autumn day, Libby and excitable Springer Spaniel 'Shipley' discover a dead body under the lighthouse. Convinced the death was no accident, Libby teams up with Max Ramshore, an attractive local resident, and Bear, a huge sheepdog, to confront indifference from the community and unmask the killer. Murder at the Lighthouse is the first in a series of Exham-on-Sea Murder Mysteries set at the small English seaside town full of quirky characters, sea air and gossip. If you love Agatha Christie-style mysteries, cosy crime, clever dogs and cake, then you'll love these intriguing whodunnits. THE EXHAM-ON-SEA MURDER MYSTERIES: 1. Murder at the Lighthouse 2. Murder on the Levels: 3. Murder on the Tor: 4. Murder at the Cathedral 5. Murder at the Bridge 6. Murder at the Castle 7. Murder at the Gorge 8. Murder at the Abbey Other Books by Frances Evesham in the Ham Hill Murder Mystery series A Village Murder A Racing Murder A Harvest Murder Here's what readers are saying about the series:'This is a perfect short, cosy mystery.' 'It makes you wonder if English country villages are safe places to live. But I certainly would given half a chance.' 'Frances Evesham has invented an array of lively village personalities to get in Libby's way from her Goth teenage lodger to the pompous chair of the women's group or the rude but kindly garage proprietor." 'With every book, I grow more fond of Libby and Exham.' 'If you like Miss Marple this amateur sleuth will enthral you.'

This, the final title to be published from the sessions of the 2002 ICAZ conference, focuses on the role of man's best friend. As worker or companion, the dog has enjoyed a unique relationship with its human master, and the depth and variety of the papers in this fascinating collection is a testament to the interest that this symbiotic arrangement holds for many scholars working in archaeology today. The book covers an eclectic range of subjects, such as considering dogs as animals of sacrifice and animal components of ancient and modern religious ritual and practice; dogs as human companions subject to loving care, visual/symbolic representation, deliberate or accidental breed manipulation; as working dogs; and finally as co-inhabitors of uman dwelling paces and co-consumers of human food resources. While many of the papers in this volume have a predominant focus, they also demonstate that the relationships between humans and dogs are rarely, if ever singular or simple. Instead these relationships are complex, often combining the practical, the ideological and the symbolic.

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The sapiens of the sea, whales are the other intelligent, social, and loquacious animal. But they seem to swim away the more people chase after them in an effort to communicate and connect. Why does the meaning of their mesmerizing songs continue to elude us? In times of unprecedented environmental and social loss, Whale Song ponders the problems facing ocean ecosystems and offers lessons from those depths for human social life and intimacy. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.