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.

For 12,000 years, people have left a rich record of their experiences in Utah's Capitol Reef National Park. In The Capitol Reef Reader, award-winning author and photographer Stephen Trimble collects the best of this writing-160 years worth of words that capture the spirit of the park and its surrounding landscape in personal narratives, philosophical riffs, and historic and scientific records. The volume features nearly fifty writers who have anchored their attention and imagination in Utah's least-known national park. The bedrock elders of Colorado Plateau literature are here (Clarence Dutton, Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey), as are generations of writers who love this land (including Ellen Meloy, Craig Childs, Charles Bowden, Renny Russell, Ann Zwinger, Gary Ferguson, and Rose Houk). Their pieces are a pleasure to read and each reveals a facet of Capitol Reef's story, creating a gem of a volume. Editor Stephen Trimble guides and orients with commentary and context. A visual survey of the park in almost 100 photographs adds another layer to our understanding of this place. Historic photos, pictures from Trimble's forty-five years of hiking the park, as well as images from master visual artists who have worked in Capitol Reef are included. No other book captures the essence of Capitol Reef like this one.

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

"This story, told by a master teller of such things, does more than take you inside the cages, fences, and walls of a zoo. It takes you inside the human heart, and an elephant's, and a primate's, and on and on. Tom French did in this book what he always does. He took real life and wrote it down for us, with eloquence and feeling and aching detail."
-Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author
"An insightful and detailed look at the complex life of a zoo and its denizens, both animal and human."
-Yann Martel, author of "Life of Pi" and "Beatrice and Virgil"
Welcome to the savage and surprising world of "Zoo Story," an unprecedented account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants. Based on six years of research, the book follows a handful of unforgettable characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: an alpha chimp with a weakness for blondes, a ferocious tiger who revels in Obsession perfume, and a brilliant but tyrannical CEO known as El Diablo Blanco.
The sweeping narrative takes the reader from the African savannah to the forests of Panama and deep into the inner workings of a place some describe as a sanctuary and others condemn as a prison. "Zoo Story" shows us how these remarkable individuals live, how some die, and what their experiences reveal about the human desire to both exalt and control nature.

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.

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.

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.

Zoos are important and popular tourist attractions. Spread around the world, they are typically located in major cities, with visitation levels comparable to other major attractions. Nature-based attractions constructed in artificial settings, they face the challenge of trying to balance potentially conflicting aims of conservation, education and entertainment. The best are continually developing fresh and effective techniques on visitor interpretation and management, the worst highlight the manipulation of animals for human gratification. Taking a global approach, this book examines the problems and paradoxes of zoos as they try to balance their roles as visitor attractions while repositioning themselves as leading conservation agencies.

To modern sensibilities, early zoos seem to have been unnatural places where animals led miserable lives in cramped, wrought-iron cages. Today zoo animals typically wander in open spaces that resemble natural habitats and are enclosed, not by bars, but by moats, cliffs, and other landscape features. Savages and Beasts traces the origins of the modern zoo in the efforts of nineteenth-century German animal entrepreneur Carl Hagenbeck. How did seemingly enlightened ideas about the role of zoos and the nature of animal captivity develop out of the simple business of placing exotic creatures on public display?

"This is much more than a history of Hagenbeck's many successes. It is an historical explanation for why the environments of zoos today are meant to mask the human character of the places in which animals are forced to live their unnatural lives." -- American Historical Review

"A fine read, in which good use of picture archives has complemented the writer's extensive documentary research." -- New Scientist

"Rothfels is attuned to the ironies pervading zoos' mediation of people and animals and understands that zoos operate according to entrepreneurial rather than environmental principles." -- Chronicle of Higher Education

"Convincingly argues that the image of Hagenbeck as a modern-day Noah, a great animal lover trying to educate the public about the wonders of nature, belies the basic nature of Hagenbeck's enterprise... Rothfels raises questions about past practices of exhibiting animals (and people) and about what zoos of the present are all about." -- Journal of the History of Biology

"A fascinating if disturbing tale of animal and human display." -- German StudiesReview

Nigel Rothfels received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and is the director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University, the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the editor of the interdisciplinary collection Representing Animals.