Pets in America

December 19, 2005
In an encyclopedic history, Grier describes the changing cultural sensibilities that have defined the experience of American pet owners from colonial times to the present. Grier, an expert on material culture at the Winterthur Museum (one of several museums that will display a traveling exhibition of the same title), draws on diaries, magazines, advice books, illustrations and photographs for this serious book reflecting the author's interest in the symbolic and metaphorical role pets play in our culture. Grier's definition of "pet" is broad and includes domestic animals like urban horses as well as chickens and pigs, which were routinely raised by children on farms as quasi-pets. Although she is primarily interested in human-animal relationships, Grier doesn't neglect the developing commercial multibillion-dollar pet industry (Ralston Purina, Grier relates, began as a livestock feed company, adding dog food only in 1926). Scholarly, thorough, informative and animal friendly as the book is, Grier would have made many readers even happier had she occasionally eschewed seriousness in favor of the rich satirical grounds the excesses of pet-ownership provide. B&w photos.

February 15, 2006
Grier (material culture studies, Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Lib., Univ. of Delaware) begins her history of pets in America by sharing her personal history, including, appropriately enough, the fact that her first word was "kitty". From there, she quickly expands to the societal, focusing on the period between 1840 and 1940. Topically organized chapters cover such subjects as commercial pet foods and supplies, the ethics of pet care and keeping, and the commercial trade in pets. There is little with which to take issue in Grier's telling; it is evident that the rise of a -middle class - allowed the role of common animals to change rapidly from the practical to the playful. Aside from her coherent, friendly writing style, Grier provides -as any good author of social history should -a peek into an era's everyday life. "Pets" will prove useful to readers, as it deals with a subject that is not well covered. The book accompanies an eponymous museum exhibit traveling to five cities from May 2006 to May 2008. Recommended for all public libraries. (Index not seen.)" -Alicia Graybill, Southeast Lib. Syst., Lincoln, NE"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.