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Orangutans swing from Kevlar-lined fire hoses. Giraffes feast on celebratory birthday cakes topped with carrots instead of candles. Hi-tech dinosaur robots growl among steel trees, while owls watch animated cartoons on old television sets. In American Zoo, sociologist David Grazian takes us on a safari through the contemporary zoo, alive with its many contradictions and strange wonders.
Trading in his tweed jacket for a zoo uniform and a pair of muddy work boots, Grazian introduces us to zookeepers and animal rights activists, parents and toddlers, and the other human primates that make up the zoo's social world. He shows that in a major shift away from their unfortunate pasts, American zoos today emphasize naturalistic exhibits teeming with lush and immersive landscapes, breeding programs for endangered animals, and enrichment activities for their captive creatures. In doing so, zoos blur the imaginary boundaries we regularly use to separate culture from nature, humans from animals, and civilization from the wild. At the same time, zoos manage a wilderness of competing priorities--animal care, education, scientific research, and recreation--all while attempting to serve as centers for conservation in the wake of the current environmental and climate-change crisis. The world of the zoo reflects how we project our own prejudices and desires onto the animal kingdom, and invest nature with meaning and sentiment.
A revealing portrayal of comic animals, delighted children, and feisty zookeepers, American Zoo is a remarkable close-up exploration of a classic cultural attraction.
- Sales Rank: #507099 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.10" w x 6.10" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 344 pages
Review
Winner of the 2016 Award for Distinguished Scholarship, Animals and Society Section of the American Sociological Association
Winner of the 2015 Athenaeum Literary Award, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Honorable Mention for the 2016 PROSE Award in Sociology & Social Work, Association of American Publishers
"Although there are plenty of books about zoos, zoo ethnographies are a rare treat. . . . Grazian's impressive commitment to understanding zoo workers through everyday encounters adorns his book."--Irus Braverman, Times Literary Supplement
"A powerful portrait . . . peppered with delicious details."--Barbara Kiser, Nature
"Grazian's book is inspiring. He makes the reader repeatedly reflect on whether there might be better ways of educating the public and contributing to wildlife conservation."--Matthew Cobb, New Scientist
"[American Zoo's] narratives of animal care workers inspire well-deserved laughter and tears."--Library Journal
"An engaging account . . . discussing some interesting questions: Should large, intelligent mammals such as great apes be confined at all? Why are Americans so often concerned about the comfort of zoo animals when they don't worry about the vastly greater number of other caged animals--the ones being prepared for slaughter? Beyond entertainment and amusement, what should a zoo's role be regarding environmental protection or species conservation? American Zoo is a serious book . . . But Grazian's lively, readable prose makes it entertaining as well."--Nancy Szokan, Washington Post
"Grazian has a sharp eye for detail and ethical tensions."--Amanda Gilroy, PopMatters
"Zoos aren't places urban-dwelling humans go to see nature, [Grazian] argues--they're places we go to invent nature."--Kelly O'Brien, Boston Globe
"The history of zoo design demonstrates that 'natural' enclosures serve humans more than the creatures who live within them. We favor artificial habitats that follow aesthetic expectations about nature rather than purely natural conditions, as the sociologist David Grazian argues in his book American Zoo. They reflect our own fantasies about the animals we gawk at rather than the true needs of these nonhuman others. In the process of meeting our needs, they may erase the true plight of those animals, naturalizing nothing so much as the pretense of our benevolent dominion over nature."--Jacob Brogan, Slate
"Sociologist Grazian took his young son on a cross-country excursion to visit more than two dozen zoos and aquariums. He saw that zoos have been transformed in recent years from sad places with cramped, barren cages to more open, expansive exhibits. But he also noted man's strange relationship with the nature."--Chicago Tribune
From the Back Cover
"With a keen sociological eye (and, as relevant, sense of smell), David Grazian reveals the habits, aspirations, and curious social organization of the human species. In this book, Grazian closely examines what captures us as well as what we capture, feed, display, love, and kill--in zoos and beyond."--Harvey Molotch, author of Against Security
"American Zoo is a groundbreaking account of the elaborate cultural work we humans do to produce nature in the modern world. David Grazian spent years inside the cage, handling snakes and tarantulas, feeding monkeys and alligators, and making sharp observations about the wild ways we tame the environment to suit our needs. The result is an unforgettable look at human behavior. You'll never see our species the same way again."--Eric Klinenberg, author of Going Solo
"An enlightening look at a world simultaneously familiar and surprising, American Zoo examines all the salient aspects of zoo culture and effectively provides a unique portrait of an important but unexplored institution."--Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University
"David Grazian brings us into zoos as we've never seen them before. American Zoo helps us better understand our relationship with the 'natural world,' and leads us to reconsider our culture and community. This is the finest book by a master of his craft."--Shamus Khan, author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School
About the Author
David Grazian is associate professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs, On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife, and Mix It Up: Popular Culture, Mass Media, and Society.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
This is a superb book on zoos. It's also a sociological analysis of zoos and zoo people that not all readers will like.
By lyndonbrecht
This book is the best I have ever read on American zoos. Grazian's writing sparkles with wit, passion and insight. The only weakness the book has is that some photos would make the book even livelier. Reader alert: this book is a wonderful introduction to zoos, working in zoos and what zoos do and ought to be doing, but Grazian holds strong opinions about global warming and environmental crisis, which some readers may disagree with. The opinions inform his discussion of what zoos do and what they could do in the future. Early on he writes "...zoos are not only cordoned-off refuges of animal life in the city, but repositories of culture, living museums that chronicle how we humans make sense of the natural world."
Below are two more quotes that give a flavor of what he does in this book. The first gives a sense of his discussion of the work and workers in a zoo, and the second frames his more general exploration of how zoos exemplify the "constructed" nature of Nature. This may sound like a setup for a dry sociological analysis, but this book is anything but. For one thing, Grazian is a very, very good writer. For another, he spent hundreds of hours working as a volunteer an educator at two Philadephia area zoos, from shoveling dung to trying to interest children in snakes. He visited a number of zoos (not all of them AZA affiliated), sometimes with his small son. Grazian is a tenured professor at a famed institution, and I would guess that his lectures are very popular with students. He has the touch that can connect the theoretical and the real and make it really interesting and entertaining.
(15) "In the social world of the zoo, keepers and educators, media relations staff, zoo visitors and animal rights activists publicly wrestle with complex issues surrounding the domination and display of animals--what I call the captivity question."
(259) "By understanding zoos, we can become better able to reconsider our presuppositions and priorities on a warming planet beset by mass species extinction, broiling heat waves, sprawling forest fires, arid droughts and the polluting of Earth's waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
He interviews a number of keepers and volunteers. These days most are educated and female--setting up, for one thing, a generational clash with older, often male and somewhat macho, managers. Grazian notes that as is typical in other caregiving situations, women predominate and are grossly underpaid. Love of animals seems to the motivator, and the interviews make plain that caring goes deep.
Zoos have in recent years reconstituted themselves from places that exhibit animals to places that educate the public, and have added various conservation concerns that vary from zoo to zoo, such as breeding endangered species, and facilitating research. Tellingly, they tend to censor educational staff, so as not to irritate visitors or sponsors, so they tiptoe around evolution and global warming. Typically information that concerns negative human impact is expressed in terms of problems elsewhere, such as Asian traditional medicine using tiger bones as an ingredient, and ignoring problems caused more locally.
This characteristic of trying very hard not to alienate visitors and sponsors dovetails with the need to obtain financial support, which Grazian discusses in witty and strong terms--zoos marketing themselves as attractions, sometimes in ways that could harm animals such as swimming with dolphins (the title refers to zoos but the book also considers aquariums). Put another way, zoos live in a market system that sometimes positions them in a way that contradicts their purposes in being. He ends with a short section on what zoos might do in the future.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
I enjoyed this book
By Rondi Olson
I enjoyed this book, but it certainly was not a quick, easy read. As another reviewer noted, this book is not for everyone due to it's length and academic point-of-view, but in general it is an honest portrayal of the zoo system that gives fair voice to both promoters and detractors.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Very insightful assessment of US zoos and the role they should play in today's society
By Mary R. Tanner
Very thoughtful overview of zoo issues. Gracian did a very good job of giving an honest behind-the-scenes view of US zoos. He also depicted the delicate balance between zoos as entertainment and environmental educators, pushing zoos to do the right thing and be stronger advocates for the latter.
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