Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America

by
Virginia DeJohn Anderson (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Virginia DeJohn Anderson Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Virginia DeJohn Anderson (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 15 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0195304466
ISBN-10: 0195304462
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy new
$15.43
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Saturday, April 23? Order within and choose Saturday Delivery at checkout. Details
List Price: $19.95 Save: $4.52 (23%)
37 New from $9.99
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Qty:1
Creatures of Empire: How ... has been added to your Cart
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
More Buying Choices
37 New from $9.99 47 Used from $6.48
84 used & new from $6.48
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Creativebug
Get unlimited access to over 700 online art and craft classes for only $4.95 per month! > Start Free Trial
$15.43 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America
  • +
  • Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
Total price: $40.38
Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
China
Engineering & Transportation Books
Discover books for all types of engineers, auto enthusiasts, and much more. Learn more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press (January 19, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0195304462
  • ISBN-13: 978-0195304466
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 1.1 x 6.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent account
By T. Pangle on March 9, 2007
Format: Paperback
The nature of the colonial relationships between the European settlers and the Native Americans has been readjusted to include livestock in a central rather than marginal role in the shaping of American history.

Virginia DeJohn Anderson's Creatures of Empire culminates around the way in which the colonial settlers and natives viewed the very nature of animals and therefore the way in which their relative reactions affected their relationships with each other. Anderson seems to say that if Native Americans and settlers were opposing teams in the championship game, then the livestock were as pivotal as the field on which the game was played.
Through her research, Anderson is able to reconstruct accurate tales of interaction between the natives, settlers and their imported livestock, which eventually lead to conflict and European expansion. There are three main purposes of Creatures of Empire that serve to further illuminate colonial history. The first purpose is deducing how natives and settlers view fauna independently of one another. Second, by analyzing the clear difference in point of views, Anderson is able to realize how conflicts arose and were potentially solved between the two parties, because of their interaction with various animals and finally, she is able to reason how these conflicts or resolutions shaped Colonial America and its future.
Virginia DeJohn Anderson received her Ph.D. in History from Harvard University and is currently a Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Boulder as a Colonial and Revolutionary historian. Her previous publications include New England's Generation and co-author of the textbook The American Journey: A History of the United States ([...]).Read more ›
Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWho Knew Animal Husbandry Could Be So Engaging?
By R. Stander on November 10, 2011
Format: Paperback
While many would agree that animals have been significant to human life and society, few could articulate these dynamics as well as Virginia DeJohn Anderson has done in Creatures of Empire. Building on the insights of environmental history, Anderson creatively turns to focus on the role of animals within the relational dynamics between the early American colonists and Native-Americans. She eloquently argues that both Natives and Colonists were guided by distinct cosmological views that deeply guided their agricultural practices. Negotiating these differences became key as the two groups attempted to live near one another. As a result, Anderson claims, "animals not only produced changes in the land but also in the hearts and minds of the peoples who dealt with them."

Anderson begins by cultivating a landscape of distinct spiritual/cosmological beliefs that guide each groups' practices with animals. She persuasively argues that Natives merged the physical and spiritual worlds forming a dynamic reciprocity among living and spiritual beings. Conversely, the English rooted their self-understanding as the pinnacle of creation as written in Genesis. A theology of dominion dictated a sharp dichotomy of human and non-human beings leaving humanity as the divinely sanctioned rulers over the land and its creatures.

Once this cosmological landscape is set, Anderson turns toward the practices of animal husbandry. Natives had to contend not just with the newly arrived English colonists, but their animals as well. These strange new beasts were slowly integrated into Native vocabulary, worldviews, and practices; but not always in the ways as the English hoped.Read more ›
Comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsSlow, but interesting
By RC Logan on August 8, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
The author tends to be a bit repetitious, but the subject matter is interesting for anyone interested in the early colonial period, particularly the relationship between white colonists and Native Americans.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsExtremely Interesting
By Glenn J. Smits on December 11, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
One would not think that domestic animals would have played such a major role in the early development of our young nation but the author documents convincingly on how that actually occurred. A highly informative historical text on the development of early America and how livestock affected early European-Native American relations and our early local political structures.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating theme
By A Customer on November 20, 2004
Format: Hardcover
The underlying premise that Virginia Dejohn Anderson's terrific book makes is that animals have been key driving forces in human history; that argument has been used in other books such as Jeffrey Lockwood's LOCUST: THE DEVASTATING RISE AND MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF THE INSECT THAT SHAPED THE AMERICAN FRONTIER and GRASSHOPPER DREAMING. Ms. Anderson provides an intriguing and entertaining case that farm animals (cattle, pigs, and sheep) are as critical to American History as apple pie, Pilgrims, and Founding Fathers. CREATURES OF THE EMPIRE argues using historical references and interesting anecdotal examples that livestock changed the landscape especially the relationships between people. She concentrates on Colonial America as she makes the point that domestic farm animals in New England and Virginia were key segments of shaping society and led to conflict over land ownership between the settlers and the Indians. Besides making a strong case in support of her theory, Ms. Anderson's book is a well written easy to pick up and put down thought provoking volume that history buffs will appraise and then argue the fascinating premise over the water cooler.

Harriet Klausner
Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsDetailed history

Things you never knew, especially in this much detail. Long but interesting read. A side of American history they don't teach in school.

Published 6 days ago by cmichelle
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Not quit what I expected, but a very interesting book none the less.

Published 12 months ago by Jesse Bricker
5.0 out of 5 starsIt is not what don't know that hurts you, it is what you know that...

School based history is superficial and boring. Tidbits of history can be very eye-opening. This is an example of such a tidbit. Read more

Published on October 21, 2012 by Jean
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat

Hard to put down. The author really researched this book. It gives you a whole new slant on the 1600s. Read more

Published on October 6, 2012 by carrollk
3.0 out of 5 starsCreatures of Empire: How Domestic Annimals Transformed Early America

This was fascinating. A new take on the factors that influenced the settlement and eventual domination of the New World by the English. Read more

Published on August 9, 2012 by Junaluska
2.0 out of 5 starsInteresting Concept, Tedious Execution

I purchased this book because I love reading about history from different perspectives. I guess I was hoping for a Bill Bryson-esque treatment. Read more

Published on August 6, 2012 by myrtleturtle
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Interesting and Unique Look at Colonial History

I really enjoyed reading this book. I have read a fair amount of history books that outline the things that men (and women) have to done to either advance the cause of man or... Read more

Published on August 1, 2012 by Jane
2.0 out of 5 starsA Unique Look at Colonial America

Creatures of Empire by Virginia DeJohn Anderson

This is a very different work of historical non-fiction. Read more

Published on July 27, 2012 by J. M. Alexander
4.0 out of 5 starsGood historical research

Very readable and thoroughly annotated. The footnotes though don't get in the way.

The livestock really did "settle" America.

Published on July 12, 2011 by R Dwayne Stevenson
5.0 out of 5 starsAmerican History and Domestic Animals

Humans are so arrogant that they write histories -- and current events-- as if they alone are responsible for what happens. Read more

Published on April 19, 2010 by Elaine O. Chaika

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.