{"product_id":"9780801898099","title":"Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo","description":"\u003cp\u003eTo modern sensibilities, nineteenth-century zoos often seem to be unnatural places where animals led miserable lives in cramped, wrought-iron cages. Today zoo animals, in at least the better zoos, wander in open spaces that resemble natural habitats and are enclosed, not by bars, but by moats, cliffs, and other landscape features. In \u003ci\u003eSavages and Beasts\u003c\/i\u003e, Nigel Rothfels traces the origins of the modern zoo to the efforts of the German animal entrepreneur Carl Hagenbeck.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the late nineteenth century, Hagenbeck had emerged as the world's undisputed leader in the capture and transport of exotic animals. His business included procuring and exhibiting indigenous peoples in highly profitable spectacles throughout Europe and training exotic animals—humanely, Hagenbeck advertised—for circuses around the world. When in 1907 the Hagenbeck Animal Park opened in a village near Hamburg, Germany, Hagenbeck brought together all his business interests in a revolutionary zoological park. He moved wild animals out of their cages and into \"natural landscapes\" alongside \"primitive\" peoples from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the islands of the Pacific. Hagenbeck had invented a new way of imagining captivity: the animals and people on exhibit appeared to be living in the wilds of their native lands. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy looking at Hagenbeck's multiple enterprises, \u003ci\u003eSavages and Beasts\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how seemingly enlightened ideas about the role of zoos and the nature of animal captivity developed within the essentially tawdry business of placing exotic creatures on public display. Rothfels provides both fascinating reading and much-needed historical perspective on the nature of our relationship with the animal kingdom.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068437512432,"sku":"9780801898099","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780801898099_p0.jpg?v=1763724983","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780801898099","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}