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Book Cover
E-book
Author Nance, Susan

Title Entertaining elephants : animal agency and the business of the American circus / Susan Nance
Published Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013
©2013

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 294 pages) : illustrations
Series Animals, history, culture
Animals, history, culture.
Contents Introduction : Turning the circus inside out -- Why elephants in the early republic? -- Becoming an elephant "actor" -- Learning to take direction -- Punishing bull elephants -- Herd management in the Gilded Age -- Going off script -- Animal cultures lost in the circus, then and now
Summary In this book, the author examines elephant behavior - drawing on the scientific literature of animal cognition, learning, and communications - to offer a study of elephants as actors (rather than objects) in American circus entertainment between 1800 and 1940. By developing a deeper understanding of animal behavior, the author asserts, we can more fully explain the common history of all species. This account uses research on animal welfare, health, and cognition to interpret the historical record, examining how both circus people and elephants struggled behind the scenes to meet the profit necessities of the entertainment business
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-288) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Elephants -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Captive elephants -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Animal welfare -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Circus animals -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Circus -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Animal welfare
Captive elephants
Circus
Circus animals
Elephants
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012023932
ISBN 1421408732
9781421408736