Animal Encounters
Human and Animal Interaction in Britain from the Norman Conquest to World War One
Distributed for Reaktion Books
552 pages
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150 color plates, 40 halftones
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7 1/2 x 9 3/4
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© 2012
Until the advent of steam and later the internal combustion engine, the fortunes of man and beast were intimately and essentially bound together. Animals were fundamental partners in a range of human work and leisure activities such as transport, agriculture, industry, warfare, sports, and recreation. But their importance to human progress has become overshadowed by technology and greatly overlooked in our now largely urbanized society, from which the animal world has become ever more remote.
Arthur MacGregor, in Animal Encounters, seeks to renew our appreciation of the diverse ways in which human and animal lives have been and remain interlinked. Drawing on his lifelong interest and expertise in the fields of art history, topography, archaeology, history, and archaeozoology, MacGregor provides a compelling overview of the evolving relations between the human and animal populations of the British Isles from the Norman Conquest to World War I.
In this very readable, informative, and well-illustrated narrative, MacGregor explores the animal kingdom from bees to horses, and a wide range of human activities, from pigeon-breeding to bear-baiting, showing just how interdependent the animal-human relationship has been. Animal Encounters will stir a new sympathy for and an interest in the not-really-so-remote world of animals.
Joan Thirsk | former general editor of the series The Agrarian History of England and Wales
“This is an enthralling book. Surely, no one before has given such a wide-ranging account of people’s encounters with animals through the centuries, revealing all the ingenious ways in which they have handled, tended, exploited, even cruelly sported with them. All the practicalities are described, bringing a rich, and sometimes surprising, story to life, further enhanced by numerous pertinent illustrations. Final remarks on the distance separating us these days from once routine connections with badgers and beavers, wild pigs in forests, pigeons in dovecotes and eels in moats will prompt some sobering reflections. Animal Encounters is riveting from beginning to end.”
Liz Jones | Mail on Sunday
“Critics reviewing the wonderful new book Animal Encounters: Human And Animal Interaction In Britain From The Norman Conquest To World War One, by Arthur MacGregor, have gasped over the ancient sport of whipping a blinded bear, but have failed to point out that we are little better today.”
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Human Engagement with the Animal World
Environmental change: conditioning and consequences
Animals as currency
Insularity and interpenetration
Urbanization and industrialization
Cruelty, compassion and domestic pets
Plenitude
1. Ubiquitous Horse
A horse-driven society
The horse population
Horsegear and stables
Saddle horses
Horses for Crown and country
The carrying trade and the post
Coaches and coach-horses
The horse in the industrial age
Horses for sport and leisure
Mules and donkeys
2. The Art of Venery and its Adjuncts
The hunt: privilege and exclusion since 1066
The chase in the medieval period
Hunting under the Tudors and Stuarts
Early hunting literature
Of hounds and horses
The personnel of the hunt
Weapons of the hunt
Beasts of the forest, the chase and the warren
Hawks and falcons
Cormorants
3. Urban and Rural Sports and Pastimes
Persecution and protection of urban and rural animals
The baiting of bulls, bears and other animals
Badger-digging and badger-baiting
Deer and hare coursing
Cocks and cockfighting
Homing and racing pigeons
Wildfowling and bird-catching
Fishing with trap and line
4. The Living Larder
Provisioning the larder
Doves or pigeons
Husbandry and exploitation of swans
Poultry
Fish-ponds
Rabbits
Bees and bee-keeping
5. Animals on the Farm
Conservative and radical practice in the countryside
Ox versus horse
Wagons and ploughs
Eighteenth-century improvers
Recording the age of improvement
Animals on display
Animal by-products
Cattle
Sheep
Goats
Pigs
Horses
Donkeys and mules
Epilogue
Bibliography and References
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Acts of Parliament
Index
Introduction: Human Engagement with the Animal World
Environmental change: conditioning and consequences
Animals as currency
Insularity and interpenetration
Urbanization and industrialization
Cruelty, compassion and domestic pets
Plenitude
1. Ubiquitous Horse
A horse-driven society
The horse population
Horsegear and stables
Saddle horses
Horses for Crown and country
The carrying trade and the post
Coaches and coach-horses
The horse in the industrial age
Horses for sport and leisure
Mules and donkeys
2. The Art of Venery and its Adjuncts
The hunt: privilege and exclusion since 1066
The chase in the medieval period
Hunting under the Tudors and Stuarts
Early hunting literature
Of hounds and horses
The personnel of the hunt
Weapons of the hunt
Beasts of the forest, the chase and the warren
Hawks and falcons
Cormorants
3. Urban and Rural Sports and Pastimes
Persecution and protection of urban and rural animals
The baiting of bulls, bears and other animals
Badger-digging and badger-baiting
Deer and hare coursing
Cocks and cockfighting
Homing and racing pigeons
Wildfowling and bird-catching
Fishing with trap and line
4. The Living Larder
Provisioning the larder
Doves or pigeons
Husbandry and exploitation of swans
Poultry
Fish-ponds
Rabbits
Bees and bee-keeping
5. Animals on the Farm
Conservative and radical practice in the countryside
Ox versus horse
Wagons and ploughs
Eighteenth-century improvers
Recording the age of improvement
Animals on display
Animal by-products
Cattle
Sheep
Goats
Pigs
Horses
Donkeys and mules
Epilogue
Bibliography and References
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Acts of Parliament
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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