From King Solomon's collections of "apes and peacocks" to the menageries of English and Hapsburg monarchs, the display of exotic animals has delighted and amazed observers for centuries. Originally prized as symbols of elite wealth and power, such collections have been dramatically transformed since 1800--particularly in terms of audience and purpose.

In "New Worlds, New Animals," R. J. Hoage and William A. Deiss assemble essays that concentrate on the development of the modern zoo in the nineteenth century. Taking an in-depth look at the social climate of the century, they chart the transition from elaborate menageries for exclusive patrons to public facilities that expressed the power and might of nations to institutions dedicated to public education, wildlife conservation, and biological research. These changes reflect the larger transformation of the West--from the colonial era's desire to "tame" newly discovered continents to today's more egalitarian, conservation-minded world.

"New Worlds, New Animals" begins with an overview of the history of menageries in antiquity and their development in Europe and the United States. Zoos in many countries had quite different origins--including a fish market that became an animal dealership before becoming a zoo and an Australian way station originally designed to acclimate Old World domestic stock to a new continent.

The authors also examine the period in the United States between 1830 and 1880, when popular traveling animal shows and circuses gave way to the first public zoos in New York and Philadelphia. They take an in-depth look at the establishment of the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.--the first zoo created to preserve endangered species. Illustrated with nearly 100 photographs, "New Worlds, New Animals" gives readers a new respect for and understanding of the role of zoos in social and cultural history.

What stories do we tell about America's once-great industries at a time when they are fading from the landscape? Pennsylvania in Public Memory attempts to answer that question, exploring the emergence of a heritage culture of industry and its loss through the lens of its most representative industrial state. Based on news coverage, interviews, and more than two hundred heritage sites, this book traces the narrative themes that shape modern public memory of coal, steel, railroading, lumber, oil, and agriculture, and that collectively tell a story about national as well as local identity in a changing social and economic world.

It was a familiar sight at Yellowstone National Park: traffic backed up for miles as visitors fed bears from their cars. It may have been against the rules, but park officials were willing to turn a blind eye if it kept the public happy. But bear feeding eventually became too widespread and dangerous to everyone-including the bears-for the National Park Service (NPS) to allow it any longer.

As one of the park's most beloved and enduring symbols, the Yellowstone bears have long been a flashpoint for controversy. Alice Wondrak Biel traces the evolution of their complex relationship with humans--from the creation of the first staged wildlife viewing areas to the present--and situates that relationship within the broader context of American cultural history. Early on, park bears were largely thought of as performers or surrogate pets and were routinely fed handouts from cars, as well as hotel garbage dumped at park-sanctioned "lunch counters for bears." But as these activities led to ever-greater numbers of tourist injuries, and of bears killed as a result, and as ideas about conservation and the NPS mission changed, the agency refashioned the bear's image from cute circus performer to dangerous wild animal and, eventually, to keystone inhabitant of a fragile ecosystem.

Drawing on the history of recorded interactions with bears and providing telling photographs depicting the evolving bear-human relationship, Biel traces the reaction of park visitors to the NPS's efforts-from warnings by Yogi Bear (which few tourists took seriously) to the increasing promotion of key ecological issues and concerns. Ultimately, as the rules were enforced and tourist behavior dramatically shifted, the bears returned to a more natural state of existence.

Biel's entertaining and informative account tracks this gradual "renaturalization" while also providing a cautionary tale about the need for careful negotiation at the complex nexus of tourists, bears, and all things wild.

"A well-written and provocative, opinion-rich account of zoos, their history, and their goals and purposes. Hancocks has earned the right to speak authoritatively about these subjects, thanks to his tenure as director of two leading U. S. zoos. This book will appeal to general readers and to all persons interested in zoos and their role in conservation and education."--John Alcock, author of "Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach"

"Giraffes, elephants, gorillas, snakes, and toucans respond poorly to the usual conventions of human architecture. Zoo architects usually respond no less poorly to the needs of animals. David Hancocks draws on a lifetime's experience working as a zoo director and zoo architect to explore this dilemma, and offers a compelling vision for the future. This is an important book for those interested in conservation as well as for zoo and museum buffs."--William Conway, former President and General Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Bronx Zoo

"For over two decades David Hancocks has fervently tried to reform the fundamental character and mission of zoos. This book is his most thorough analysis of what is wrong with them and his most detailed and compelling plea for improvement. Every conscientious zoo administrator, curator, and keeper should read it from cover to cover with an open mind. Professionals in botanical gardens, museums, and nature parks should also consider this treatise because Hancocks advocates that a fusion of all of these institutions into a new entity better positioned to interpret the entire biosphere."-Mark A. Dimmitt, Director of Natural History, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Grand Teton National Park draws more than three million visitors annually in search of wildlife, outdoor adventure, solitude, and inspiration. This collection of writings showcases the park's natural and human histories through stories of drama and beauty, tragedy and triumph. Editor Robert Righter has selected thirty-five contributors whose work takes readers from the Tetons' geological origins to the time of Euro-American encroachment and the park's politically tumultuous creation. Selections range from Laine Thom's Shoshone legend of the Snake River and Owen Wister's essay 'Great God! I've Just Killed a Bear,' to Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson's humorous yet fearful account of crossing the Snake River, and William Owen's first attempt to climb the Grand Teton. Conservationists, naturalists, and environmentalists are also represented: Terry Tempest Williams chronicles her multiyear encounter with her 'Range of Memory,' and Olaus and Mardy Murie recount the difficulties of 'park-making' in an often-hostile human environment. Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the park's wild beauty and controversial past will want to read these stories by people who lived it.

Full of charming animals and devious villains, this brand new middle grade will enchant middle grade readers! PRAISE FOR THE ELEPHANT THIEF: 'A classic-in-the-making.' THE TIMES 'This is storytelling at its best' BOOKS FOR KEEPS Danny works at Belle Vue Zoo, where - alongside training the famous elephant Maharajah - he helps out with the day-to-day caring for the animals. But when animals start escaping, Danny is the prime suspect: after all, he was a former street urchin and pickpocket. When a man turns up claiming to be his father, the plot thickens. Can Danny untangle the mystery of the animal escapade - and find out where he really belongs - in order to clear his name? The second novel from Jane Kerr, author of critically acclaimed The Elephant Thief Charming animals and deveious villains will enchant readers Perfect for ages 9 and up

In this superb and handsomely illustrated book - the first full-scale history of the park ever published - Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar tell the dramatic story of the creation of Central Park, of the people who built it and have used it. The book chronicles the launching of the park project, the disputes surrounding its design and management, the job of constructing it, and the various ways it has served generations of New Yorkers. Throughout, the authors delineate the politicians, business people, artists, immigrant laborers, and city dwellers who are the key players in the tale. In tracing the park's history, the writers also give us the history of New York. They explain how squabbles over politics, taxes, and real estate development shaped the park and describe the acrimonious debates over what a public park should look like, what facilities it should offer, and how it should accommodate the often incompatible expectations of different groups of parkgoers. The authors have uncovered surprising information about the immigrants and African Americans who were displaced from the park site, and they offer a critical reassessment of the famous collaboration of the park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. In rich detail, they describe working-class New Yorkers fighting for Sunday park concerts and against the practice of renting park seats for a nickel. They look back at the origins of the zoo and museums at the park's borders. They follow the battle between the twentieth-century reformers who wanted to introduce playgrounds and ball fields and the preservationists trying to protect the original Olmsted and Vaux design, and they explain the dramatic changes broughtabout by the social impulses of the New Deal and by Robert Moses. Rounding out the story, the authors take in the park's recent history: rising fears of crime in the 1950s, the "be-ins" and anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s, the devastating fiscal crisis of the 1970s, and the restoration of the park in the 1980s by the Central Park Conservancy. But the authors' aim is much wider: they also show that conflicting visions of how a park should be managed and used raise larger issues about the meaning of the "public" in a democratic society. Who is the public? How can people take part in making decisions about public institutions? How do we create public space where people of diverse social and cultural backgrounds will feel welcome? These are questions that communities across the nation will continue to debate. Parkgoers and city dwellers everywhere will be enthusiastic readers of The Park and the People, as will those interested in urban, architectural, social, and cultural history, urban planning, and landscape architecture.

Covers all the major national parks and reserves in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique & Lesotho Overview of Southern Africa with coverage of peace parks, malaria areas, time zones, cities and towns, and facts. Detailed coverage of over 300 parks and reserves, with information text, beautiful photographs, and location maps Information boxes covering park size, fauna and flora, nearest town and airport location, contact details, camp facilities, accommodation and seasonal information Handy Quickfinder and index of parks. Detailed maps with GPS Co-ordinates at key points Seasonal information for all parks (gate times, summer & winter Southern Africa times, day visitors etc.)

Zoos have found themselves continually under fire in recent decades. Animal rights activists initiated the attacks; at the same time regulatory agencies, anti-tax advocates, and an assortment of litigators have also targeted zoos. In an effort to defend themselves in this hostile landscape, zoos and aquariums joined forces under the leadership of the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (now called the AZA). They learned to use the political system to their own advantage while at the same time crafting a more progressive public mission. In The Politics of Zoos, Jesse Donahue and Erik Trump present a political biography of the AZA to show how the zoo community has emerged as a political player. Rather than recount the history of a faceless institution, the authors focus on the cohort of directors who navigated the political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s and set the agenda for subsequent decades. Ironically, at a time when activists began to charge that zoos and aquariums did not know how to care for animals and did not care for the well-being of endangered species, the opposite was true. These institutions were increasingly attracting well-educated professionals who indeed cared a great deal. Amidst controversies over ownership and funding, capture and disposal, and the health and well-being of animals on display, AZA leaders acted not merely to protect their own interests in the political arena but to ensure the welfare of captive animals and to assist with the conservation of wild species. Donahue and Trump's original study of the politics of American zoos and aquariums from the 1960s to the present draws upon interviews, archival sources, congressional records, court cases, regulatory hearings, media accounts, and the authors' ongoing field research. It will appeal to zoo professionals, political scientists, historians, and those concerned with animal welfare.

Africa's great game parks house thousands of the world's most incredible wildlife, including the elephant, rhino, zebra, and gorilla, but along with this beauty comes a desperate struggle for existence. This living legacy faces the possibility of becoming extinct because of ignorance and apathy. In Wild Edens Africa's Premier Game Parks and Their Wildlife, longtime conservationist and seasoned African travelerJoseph James Shomon journeys through the wild African scene, revealing its magnificence and mystique, and wonderfully describes the game parks' location, ecology, and irreplaceable wildlife. From the summit of Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, the author surveys the marvelous Edens of East Africa, among the last Pleistocene-like concentrations of animals left in the world today. Descending, Shomon gives a firsthand account of the great sanctuaries, providing a knowledgeable escort on safari in the scrublands of Tsavo, where elephants are imperiled. He continues on to the Ark at Aberdares, where visitors can watch, under floodlights of a watchtower, rain forest animals come to feed; to the rain forests of Mount Kenya; and to the Serengeti and Mara Plains, with their great migrating herds besieged by predators and thwarted in their journeys by swollen rivers and flooded lakes. The journey continues through the Great Rift Valley and Olduvai Gorge to Lake Manyara with its tree-climbing lions; Ngorongoro Crater; Samburu and Meru, where the rhino is threatened; the waterways of Uganda; the Mountains of the Moon; the Kalahari Desert; and the wildlife sanctuaries of South Africa, ending the tour at the Cape of Good Hope. Shomon argues that the plethora of impersonal technology and excessive mechanization, as well as the world's focus on violence, social ills, and discord on our domestic front, consume the world's energies, leaving little interest for safeguarding and conserving Africa's wild edens. Shomon's engaging and informative text, complemented with attractive photographs and pen-and-ink drawings, encourages those interested in Africa and its wildlife to visit the cradle of our ancestral beginnings and to take an active role in its preservation and conservation.

The Prado takes an unconventional look at Spain's most iconic art museum. Focusing on the Prado as a space of urban leisure, Eugenia Afinoguenova highlights the political history of the museum's relation to the monarchy, the church, and the liberal nation-state, as well as its role as an extension of Madrid's social center, the Prado Promenade. Rather than assume that visitors agreed about how to interpret the museum, Afinoguenova approaches the history of the Prado as a debate about culture and leisure. Just like those crossing the museum's threshold, who did not always trace a firm line between what they could see or do inside the building and outside on the Paseo del Prado, the participants in this debate-journalists, politicians, museum directors, art critics-considered museum-going to be part of a broader discussion concerning citizenship and voting rights, the rise of Madrid to the status of a modern capital, and the growing gap between town and country. Based on extensive archival research on the museum's displays and policies as well as the attitudes of visitors and city-dwellers, The Prado unfolds the museum's many political and propagandistic roles and examines its complicated history as a monument to the tension between culture and leisure. Art historians and scholars of museum studies and visual and leisure culture will find this foundational study of the Prado invaluable.

A blonde, chic Parisienne, Françoise never expected to find herself living on a South African game reserve. But when she fell in love with renowned conservationist Lawrence Anthony her life took an unexpected turn. Lawrence died in 2012 and Françoise was left to face the tough reality of running Thula Thula without him, even though she knew very little about conservation. She was short on money, poachers were threatening their rhinos, and one of their elephants was charging Land Rovers on game drives and terrifying guests. There was no time to mourn when Thula Thula’s human and animal family were depending on her.

How Françoise survived and Thula Thula thrived is beautifully described in this charming, funny and poignant book. Their elephant herd, rescued by Lawrence, shared Françoise's grief at his passing but over time forged a new relationship with her. One day a baby, Tom, became separated from the herd and found his way into Françoise's kitchen. Another day there was a desperate race against time to save a baby who had a snare wrapped round his face and couldn't open his mouth to suckle.

Meanwhile Françoise fulfilled her dream of building a rescue centre for orphaned rhinos and other wildlife. Abandoned hippo baby Charlie, who hated water, joined the centre's rhinos and quickly became best friends with a little girl rhino called Makhosi. The traumatised babies had round the clock care, including an unlikely nursemaid in the form of a German Shepherd called Duma. If you loved Lawrence's The Elephant Whisperer, or just want to spend time with some very special animals, then you won’t want to miss this sparkling book.