Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Pets in America cover art

Pets in America

By: Katherine C. Grier
Narrated by: Elisa Carlson
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £21.99

Buy Now for £21.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Humane Economy cover art
The 60s Communes cover art
The Dogs of Avalon cover art
Tesla vs Edison cover art
Four Germanys cover art
Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind cover art
Under the Henfluence cover art
Lesser Beasts cover art
Gladiator Dogs cover art
Citizen Canine cover art
P.T. Barnum: A Captivating Guide to the American Showman Who Founded What Became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus cover art
Thomas Edison: A Captivating Guide to the Life of a Genius Inventor cover art
The Lion in the Living Room cover art
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat cover art
The Sensational Past cover art
The Great Cat Massacre cover art

Summary

Entertaining and informative, Pets in America is a portrait of Americans' relationships with the cats, dogs, birds, fishes, rodents, and other animals we call our own. More than 60 percent of U.S. households have pets, and America grows more pet-friendly every day. But as Katherine Grier demonstrates, the ways we talk about and treat our pets - as companions, as children, and as objects of beauty, status, or pleasure - have their origins long ago.

Grier begins with a natural history of animals as pets, then discusses the changing role of pets in family life, new standards of animal welfare, the problems presented by borderline cases such as livestock pets, and the marketing of both animals and pet products. She focuses particularly on the period between 1840 and 1940, when the emotional, behavioral, and commercial characteristics of contemporary pet keeping were established. This audiobook is peppered with the warmth and humor of anecdotes from period diaries, letters, catalogs, and newspapers.

Pets in America ultimately shows how the history of pets has evolved alongside changing ideas about human nature, child development, and community life. This audiobook accompanied a museum exhibit, "Pets in America," which opened at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, in December 2005 and travelled to five other cities from May 2006 through May 2008.

©2006 Katherine C. Grier (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Pets in America

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but not definitive.

What did you like most about Pets in America?

This is an interesting book about a fascinating subject - the anthropology of pet keeping in the West, and in the US in particular. Grier tells a good story, and the tone is very engaging, but the subject deserves more depth and breadth of research.

What three words best describe Elisa Carlson’s performance?

Elisa Carlson's reading is highly professional, almost to the point of being slightly robotic, and occasionally sounds as though she has 'lost' the meaning of the sentence she's narrating. I found this slightly distracting, but it did not spoil the book for me.

Any additional comments?

Clearly, the history of pet keeping is a huge subject, and one which will hopefully be properly covered by an anthropologist at some point in the future. As it stands, this book is a fairly superficial social history by a non-expert, who throws in a few anecdotes for good measure. Enjoyable, and an easy and sometimes amusing listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!