Bears: A Brief History [Hardcover]

Bernd Brunner (Author), Lori Lantz (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2007

This engaging book examines the shared history of people and bears. Hopscotching through history, literature, and science, Bernd Brunner presents a rich compendium of the interactions between the two species and explores how bears have become central figures in our inventory of myths and dreams. He reveals the remarkable extent to which human feelings about bears have been—and still are—mixed. People have venerated, killed, caressed, tortured, nurtured, eaten, worshipped, and despised bears. Interestingly, the varied dealings of humans with bears raise the same question over and again: do our images of bears have much in common with the animal as it really is?

 

The book uncovers new and little-known stories and facts about bears in European, North American, Japanese, Russian, and South and Southeast Asian cultures. Taken together, these perspectives show us new things about the animals we thought we knew so well. Quirky and bizarre anecdotes, scientific information on bears threatened with extinction in some areas, a discussion of the phenomenon of “bearanoia,” and more than one hundred historical illustrations contribute to this unique account of the shared history between bears and humans and the continuing presence of bears in our personal and collective dreams.

 

 

(20070909)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

This droll, heavily illustrated history of the relationship between humans and bears brims with curious facts and anecdotes. For instance, all bears are descended from a creature that was originally the size of a small terrier; bear shoulder blades have been used as sickles for cutting grass; Cree hunters put a lighted pipe in the mouth of their kill and blew smoke down its throat, to calm the animal’s spirit; and today’s polar bears weigh approximately two hundred pounds less than those of fifteen years ago, owing to the diminishment of winter feeding grounds. Brunner adroitly details the ways bears have been demonized, revered, and anthropomorphized by cultures that see them in contradictory terms—both lazy and fierce, wily and dim-witted—and tells the sad stories of humanity’s attempts to domesticate and showcase these majestic, primarily reclusive beings.
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Review

"A fascinating exploration of how many cultures see bears as almost human."—Philadelphia Inquirer

(Philadelphia Inquirer )

“Bears is a much-welcomed book about the shared and surprising connections between two amazing animals. Bernd Brunner covers numerous matters—ursine-human—in an easy to read and compact work. Packed with facts, stories, and light humor, this book will have global appeal because bears appear universally in history, science, literature, religion, ritual, culture, and myth.”—Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and Animals Matter

(Marc Bekoff )

"Bernd Brunner''s book Bears: A Brief History is engaging and accessible. This book reminds us how poorly we treated bears in the past. Let''s hope we can do better in the future."—Ben Kilham, Author of "Among the Bears"

(Ben Kilham )

“From the era of cavemen and cave bears, the author takes us on a well-informed romp through history and around the world, with some lovely illustrations of the discovery of the panda and hibernating polar bears. Bearly putdownable!”

—Good Book Guide

(Good Book Guide )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300122993
• ISBN-13: 978-0300122992
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernd Brunner studied at the Free University of Berlin and at the University of Washington in Seattle. He worked as a tv journalist and editor of books and magazines. His books include The Ocean at Home - An Illustrated History of the Aquarium (2005/2011), Bears: A Brief History (2007), and Moon: A Brief History (2010). So far only in German is: Inventing the Christmas Tree (Insel/Suhrkamp 2011) and Germans to America (C.H.Beck 2009).
He divides his time between Berlin and Istanbul.
www.berndbrunner.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Book on Bears and People, January 5, 2008

By 

William Cramer (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bears: A Brief History (Hardcover)

As the owner of a vast bear library, I always welcome the rare bear book that documents the historical relationship between people and bears. Along with very interesting text, this book is full of photos and illustrations that help paint the picture of our past relationship with this fascinating and wonderful animal. Mr. Brunner did his homework with this book and therefore warrants a spot on the "top shelf" of my bear library. Well done Mr. Brunner, well done!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bears: who knew?, December 27, 2007

By 

Brendan Kenney (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bears: A Brief History (Hardcover)

This concise cultural history of bears in human culture is in an excellent translation which I could not stop reading. Packed full of historical illustrations, this is required reading for anyone who wants to better understand his/her own relationship with bears and the place of bears in the human imagination. The potentially dry confusing classification of bears is handled deftly and made fascinating. This is the rare non-fiction book which you will not be able to put down until you feel the satisfaction of consuming its contents.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fraught relationship between bears and humans, March 14, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bears: A Brief History (Hardcover)

Bernd Brunner's fine book is both a solid description of the various types of bears and a cultural study of people's preoccupation with them. For centuries people in the Northern Hemisphere considered them our nearest relatives (apes being unknown). But Bruner writes: "Our interactions with bears are laden with mixed feelings: our forebears venerated, killed, caressed, tortured, nurtured, ate, respected, and despised them."

Brunner surveys folklore and early human attempts to classify bears and understand their behavior. He analyzes why teddy bears are so popular and how Kipling's Baloo evolved into the Disney cartoon's hayseed.

Brunner explores the saga of Grizzly Adams (1812-1860), an eccentric showman and hunter who captured and trained the big animals, putting on a series of shows. Adams was attacked and seriously injured more than once by bears. His story is well told in The True Adventures of Grizzly Adams: A Biography.

Timothy Treadwell spent many summers living in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, interacting with and filming brown bears. In 2003, a bear killed and partially ate Treadwell and his girlfriend. Using Treadwell's own footage, Werner Herzog made the documentary Grizzly Man about Treadwell. "Simply dismissing Treadwell as more or less disturbed, irresponsible or lacking in proper judgment is too simple. Although he was indeed incapable of drawing the boundaries necessary to protect his own life, his story is inconceivable if we disregard the longing for a kinship with bears and the wish to coexist with them that peacefully motivated him - a desire likely born from hearing a multitude of unrealistic stories about humans connecting with these animals."

In the chapter "Bears on Show," Brunner considers how humans have used bears in performances. "But is it really possible to train a bear without using violence? Such a feat is very unlikely." He describes the terrible methods that have been used to teach bears to dance and do other tricks.

Brunner writes that bears "are in trouble today in much of the world for a number of reasons." On "bear farms" in southeast Asia, the gall bladders of sun bears are tapped for their bile, which is sold as a cure-all. In North America, highways and development often isolate bears in small territories and small communities that that weakens the species. (The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative seeks to create corridors for bears to move safely through larger territories.) Even global warming comes into play; Grizzlies are moving north as thawing ice reduces the range of Polar bears, pitting the two species against each other.

Beautifully produced, carefully written, interesting and amusing illustrations -- altogether, a delight for this reviewer.

Robert C. Ross 2008