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Elephant Trails

A History of Animals and Cultures

Nigel Rothfels author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:4th Feb '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Elephant Trails cover

Why have elephants—and our preconceptions about them—been central to so much of human thought?

From prehistoric cave drawings in Europe and ancient rock art in Africa and India to burning pyres of confiscated tusks, our thoughts about elephants tell a story of human history. In Elephant Trails, Nigel Rothfels argues that, over millennia, we have made elephants into both monsters and miracles as ways to understand them but also as ways to understand ourselves.

Drawing on a broad range of sources, including municipal documents, zoo records, museum collections, and encounters with people who have lived with elephants, Rothfels seeks out the origins of our contemporary ideas about an animal that has been central to so much of human thought. He explains how notions that have been associated with elephants for centuries—that they are exceptionally wise, deeply emotional, and have a special understanding of death; that they never forget, are beloved of the gods, and suffer unusually in captivity; and even that they are afraid of mice—all tell part of the story of these amazing beings.

Exploring the history of a skull in a museum, a photograph of an elephant walking through the American South in the early twentieth century, the debate about the quality of life of a famous elephant in a zoo, and the accounts of elephant hunters, Rothfels demonstrates that elephants are not what we think they are—and they never have been. Elephant Trails is a compelling portrait of what the author terms "our elephant."

[Rothfels] captures the ache and cruelty of colonization and enslavement; it is, at times, a gruesome read but a sobering one. This book will appeal to those fascinated by the mythology and legacy of elephants, as well as animal lovers who fight for the liberation of all living creatures.
—Jen Cox, Scientific American
Elephant Trails provides an excellent example of animal history methodology that untangles historical animals from the human cultures around them and the foibles of historical sources.
American Historical Review

ISBN: 9781421442594

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 23mm

Weight: 499g

256 pages