Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism [Paperback]

Richard D. Ryder (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1859733301 | ISBN-13: 978-1859733301 | Publication Date: February 1, 2000 | Edition: 1st

When Richard Ryder coined the term 'speciesism' over two decades ago, the issue of animal rights was very much a minority concern that had associations with crankiness. Today, the animal rights movement is well-established across the globe and continues to gain momentum, with animal experimentation for medical research high on the agenda and very much in the news. This pioneering book — an historical survey of the relationship between humans and non-humans — paved the way for these developments. Revised, updated to include the movement's recent history and available in paperback for the first time, and now introducing Ryder's concept of 'painism', Animal Revolution is essential reading for anyone who cares about animals or humanity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating account of how animals have been regarded and treated from ancient times to the present day ... Buy this book for the history and the campaigning ... buy it for the psychology and the ideas too. Even if you don't agree with him, Ryder is never less than stimulating."--International Society for Applied Ethology Newsletter

"It would be difficult to find a text that provides a more comprehensive history of man's changing use and relationship to non-human animals. A book full of valuable observations and insights? This book has something important to say and Richard Ryder knows how to say it."--Freethinker (2000)

"Richard Ryder analyses such springs of human conduct as machismo, stoicism and squeamishness. He has never been afraid to court controversy or to unleash uncomfortable new ideas. This is a bracing book."--Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Dr. Richard D. Ryder is a psychologist, ethicist, historian and political campaigner. He is also a past chairman of the RSPCA. His other books include Victims of Science: The Use of Animals in Research, The Political Animal: The Conquest of Speciesism and Animal Welfare and the Environment (editor). As Mellon Professor, he taught Animal Welfare at Tulane University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Berg Publishers; 1st edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859733301
• ISBN-13: 978-1859733301
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,176,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating. Thought provoking. Unique. A mine of info., December 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism (Paperback)

This is a fascinating book. It traces the whole history of the relationship between humans and animals and the development of the movement in recent decades to protect animals. Philosophers have led the current revival of interest in animal rights. In Europe the issue has gone further and a mass of new legislation has been passed in recent years to protect animals. If animals can suffer why should they not have rights? But why does Europe lead the US on this? Why is America being left behind? Are Americans less rational or less compassionate? Ryder addresses these issues (which are rarely addressed elsewhere). This is one of the main reasons I find the book invaluable. He also gives a wealth of scientific evidence to support the case for better treatment and respect for animals. I really think that Ryder's voice is worth listening to - after all, he gave to Peter Singer the idea of 'speciesism' and provided much of the material that Singer used in his classic Animal Liberation way back in 1975.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The coming of vegetarian civilization, November 13, 2002

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism (Paperback)

This is a fascinating and useful account of man's philosophic and religious mindsets toward the animal world, and rides the tide of the animal rights movement, with a history of same since the resurgence of activism in the sixties onward. A good companion to Singer's Animal Liberation, the book shares with it what I would consider an excessively solicitous attitude toward Darwinism, although the latter provides indirectly the characteristically openended injunction to see the continuum of man and animal brethren. In fact, how account for the evolution of this emergentist trend in history toward the post-carnivorous human? This apart, the splendid portrait in detail of the confusion over man-animal relations fills the void in one's awareness of this issue, and one senses the onset of a one-way valve here: there is no going back. The last excuses for the passage have fallen away in an age of scientific genetics and nutritional research. The man in the business devouring the flesh of animals is a morbid spectacle of an extinct 'species', goodbye to all that.