Customer Reviews

Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935

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Post card photography was a very popular hobby and art form at one time. While many different types of images were captured, one of the most common things revealed in these types of photos was the complex variety of relationships between humans and animals. Whether these animals were pets, sources of food and nutrition, forms of transportation or labor, all interacted with humans in some way, and these interactions were documented through a plethora of post card photographs. This book looks at the different natures of the relationships we held with animals in the early part of the 20th century.

This book was quite different from anything I had ever read, and a great departure from the types of books I typically review. I can easily see this book being used as a text book, though I am not sure what type of class would be structured around such a topic. I had never really thought of all the different roles animals and people played in each others lives, particularly in the past, until I read this book, and the accompanying photographs were simply stunning. This was a time that was crucial to the way animals and animal treatment was perceived, and a lot of what happened in the early 1900s was a precursor to the groups we see today, like PETA, ASPCA, and Humane Societies. It was fascinating to read about this, and see the history come alive on the page.

I am really glad I stepped out of my comfort zone with this book, but I will warn readers, this is not a light or short read. It took me some time to get through the book because it is quite scholarly, and having been out of school for some time, my scholarly reading muscles were a little weak (from too many novels perhaps). But just like a couch potato can get back in shape, so can a scholarly mind, and this is a great book to help anyone with an interest in history and/or animals or photography expand their knowledge base in a highly organized, soundly researched way.

Beauty and the Beast: Human Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935 is an original and ground breaking study. The authorial team, one an expert in animal-human sociology and the other an expert in the genre of real photo postcards (RPPC) are looking at these photographs as data that can be woven back into the cultural story that gave them birth. By collecting photographs of similar subjects and themes and then regarding them in the light of historical and sociological information about the period, Robert Bogdan and Arnold Arluke repair the imperfect fabric of our historical vision.

Beauty and the Beast covers a variety of animal-human relationships as documented in the pictures: animals as mascots, food, despised pests (coyotes, wolves), fair game (hunting culture) and entertainment (circuses and rodeos) among others. The cheerful opening chapter about animals as pets belies the depth and surprise of the succeeding chapters, where cultural values and practices are given concrete documentation. Men proudly display piles of animal corpses as testimony to their prowess over nature. Veterinarians struggle to provide medical aid to stricken animals under spartan conditions. Crowds gather to see exotic animals paraded down main street. A farmer bites off the testicles of a lamb as part of the castration process. A young girl proudly shows off her prizewinning heifer. The photographs are startling and beautifully reproduced but the textual discussion is essential for understanding them. The discussion is well referenced for the scholarly reader but clearly and engagingly written for any intelligent adult.

The ambiguities of the human-animal relationships gather gravity and presence with each succeeding chapter. By the end, you have to remind yourself that there is that first chapter where people are doting on animals, because there is so much casual cruelty documented after that. Our relationship with animals is complex and intense, but not necessarily admirable. This book is for animal lovers and animal rights activists, sociologists, historians of American culture, and historians of photography.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I know Bogdan slightly, having talked with him at postcard shows on several occasions; in fact, I bought my copy of this book directly from him. I loved the previous book he co-authored with Todd Weseloh, but this one I think is even better. (I also know Weseloh slightly from the show circuit)

For years I have recommended to students and others Geary & Webb's Delivering Views as an excellent introduction to the world of scholarship on postcards. When Bogdan & Weseloh's Real Photo Postcard Guide came out, I could also recommend that; I considered it the best book available on real-photo postcards. I would still consider it the best general work on real-photo postcards.

This book is another level again. Drawing on the sociological and anthropological training of its authors, the text is analytical and authoritative in the best possible ways (for social scientists, the work is developed using Glaserian Grounded Theory - but it's so unobtrusive that non-academic readers will not be put off at all). It amounts to a historical ethnography of (American) human-animal relations in the early 20th century, through the medium of popular photography but informed by other sources on the subject.

For collectors, the book offers a way to better understand the contexts and meanings of this popular genre of images. The postcards are beautifully reproduced, and the printing and production are outstanding. It's a wonderful book, whether one is reading or flipping through enjoying the images.

I can hardly wait for the next book Bogdan is working on!

I found this book very interesting. The Postcards are beautiful but some are not something I would ever want to see and I wish I had skipped them. Just beware when reading.

Beauty and the Beast offers an imaginative approach in documenting the relationships between humans and animals. It offers a peek inside the lives of people and their pets, their working animals, and their prey, through the lenses of early 20th century photo postcards. This unique work of art and scholarship can be cherished as much for its loveliness as its luminosity.

Beauty and the Beast is a fascinating social history of human relationships to animals and the ways we define both ourselves and them. With hundreds of photo postcards complementing the text, we become involved- whether it's a description of Jumbo the elephant and circus entertainment; family pets as family members; or the demeaning and killing of coyote and other "beasts". Presenting specific stories and a global overview, this illustrative study is not science fiction, but science that reads like fiction, like a good novel that hopefully makes us wiser and more sensitive to life around us.

In this lush, lovely book, the authors, professors of sociology and social science, provide us with a visual survey of human-animal relationships in the early part of the 20th century. Hundreds of photo postcards and accompanying text explore our complicated connections with animals as pets, laborers, food, prey, objects of humanitarian concern, enemies, sources of amusement, game, friends and family. The book documents subjects as diverse as the "Golden Age" of poultry breeding and nostalgia taxidermy, the mounting of dead pets. During the decades represented (1905-1935), the transition to companions and the development of the animal welfare movement meant changing roles for animals in the social order. Our proximity to wild animals and nature also changed as we destroyed the wilderness and lost touch with undomesticated wildlife.

In glossy pages with striking photographs, Beauty and the Beast examines our love-hate relationship with animals. The details and images accumulate to form a lasting impression of how much we owe our beautiful beasts, and how much progress we are making toward treating the animal world with the respect and care it deserves.

An excellent book for anyone who loves photography, history, old postcards, animals or pets.

Beauty and the Beast is a novel and very important contribution concerning our complex, often confusing, and paradoxical relationships with other animals. I really enjoyed both the numerous pictures and text concerning diverse topics that well capture who we are, who "they" (other animals) are, and the choices we make concerning how we interact with other animals and bring them into our lives in a wide variety of ways. I learned a lot by reading this unique book and have recommended it widely. A perfect book for courses on human-animal relationships (anthrozoology; [...]) or as a gift.