Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris (Animal Lives)

Dogopolis presents a surprising source for urban innovation in the history of three major cities: human-canine relationships. &nbsp; Stroll through any American or European city today and you probably won't get far before seeing a dog being taken for a walk. It's expected that these domesticated animals can easily navigate sidewalks, streets, and other foundational elements of our built environment. But what if our cities were actually shaped in response to dogs more than we ever realized? Chris Pearson's Dogopolis boldly and convincingly asserts that human-canine relations were a crucial factor in the formation of modern urban living. Focusing on New York, London, and Paris from the early nineteenth century into the 1930s, Pearson shows that human reactions to dogs significantly remolded them and other contemporary western cities. It's an unalterable fact that dogs--often filthy, bellicose, and sometimes off-putting--run away, spread rabies, defecate, and breed wherever they like, so as dogs became a more and more common in nineteenth-century middle-class life, cities had to respond to people's fear of them and revulsion at their least desirable traits. The gradual integration of dogs into city life centered on disgust at dirt, fear of crime and vagrancy, and the promotion of humanitarian sentiments. On the other hand, dogs are some people's most beloved animal companions, and human compassion and affection for pets and strays were equally powerful forces in shaping urban modernity. Dogopolis details the complex interrelations among emotions, sentiment, and the ways we manifest our feelings toward what we love--showing that together they can actually reshape society. &nbsp;

History

Pearson, Chris

Americas

University of Chicago Press

Product Description 
Dogopolis presents a surprising source for urban innovation in the history of three major cities: human-canine relationships.\nStroll through any American or European city today and you probably won’t get far before seeing a dog being taken for a walk. It’s expected that these domesticated animals can easily navigate sidewalks, streets, and other foundational elements of our built environment. But what if our cities were actually shaped in response to dogs more than we ever realized?\nChris Pearson’s 
Dogopolis boldly and convincingly asserts that human-canine relations were a crucial factor in the formation of modern urban living. Focusing on New York, London, and Paris from the early nineteenth century into the 1930s, Pearson shows that human reactions to dogs significantly remolded them and other contemporary western cities. It’s an unalterable fact that dogs—often filthy, bellicose, and sometimes off-putting—run away, spread rabies, defecate, and breed wherever they like, so as dogs became a more and more common in nineteenth-century middle-class life, cities had to respond to people’s fear of them and revulsion at their least desirable traits. The gradual integration of dogs into city life centered on disgust at dirt, fear of crime and vagrancy, and the promotion of humanitarian sentiments. On the other hand, dogs are some people’s most beloved animal companions, and human compassion and affection for pets and strays were equally powerful forces in shaping urban modernity. 
Dogopolis details the complex interrelations among emotions, sentiment, and the ways we manifest our feelings toward what we love—showing that together they can actually reshape society.\nReview \n"Pearson’s study of the modernization of three major metropoles makes a thrilling and sometimes chilling case that dogs played active roles in the story of how we together became predominantly urban species. . . . In the Covid era, the lessons of 
Dogopolis help us think about where the human race is going. . . . Pearson’s in-depth study of the modernization of this dynamic in three Western capitals adds resounding confirmation that dogs prove faithful mirrors of humans’ ever-failing aspirations to humanity." 
 ― 
Times Higher Education\n“ 
Dogopolis is a beautifully presented book with an evocative historical voice and great confidence and flair. It is also a lot of fun to read. Pearson offers a treasure trove of details about the shared lives of humans and dogs across three rapidly urbanizing cities that epitomized urban modernity and deals with themes at the heart of urban history in his examination of the public and private spaces; class, gender, and race relationships; and public health and disease.” 
 ― 
Neil Pemberton, coauthor of The Invention of the Modern Dog: Breed and Blood in Victorian Britain\n“Pearson’s dazzling and elegantly written 
Dogopolis proves irrefutably that dogs are good to think with. Pearson takes us on a journey encompassing everything from coddling to muzzling, mad dogs to doting owners, dog pounds to pet cemeteries. The result is a finely-textured history of the warp and indeed the woof of urban modernity that is like no other.” 
 ― 
Colin Jones, author of Paris: The Biography of a City\n“Straying, biting, suffering, thinking, defecating, the dogs of Paris, London, and New York were central actors in the making of the modern urban experience. 
Dogopolis is their story, one shared with the middle-class human animals whose ambivalent emotions come alive in this wonderful book.” 
 ― 
Peter Sahlins, author of 1668: The Year of the Animal in France\n“ 
Dogopolis provides a vividly detailed comparison of canine experience in London, Paris, and New York. Ranging from the scientific to the political to the (un)hygienic, it traces the development of the profoundly entangled relationship between humans and dogs in modern cities.” 
 ― 
Harriet Ritvo, author of The Animal Estate: The English and Other Cre

Aftermath

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Pearson Press

Mobilizing nature: The environmental history of war and militarization in modern France (Cultural History of Modern War)

Mobilizing nature traces the environmental history of war and militarisation in France, from the creation of Châlons Camp in 1857 to military environmentalist policies in the twentieth century. It offers a fresh perspective on the well-known histories of the Franco-Prussian War, Western Front (1914-18), Second World War, Cold War and the anti-base campaign at Larzac, whilst uncovering the largely 'hidden' history of the numerous military bases and other installations that pepper the French countryside. Mobilising nature argues that the history of war and militarisation can only be fully understood if human and environmental histories are considered in tandem. Preparing for and conducting wars were only made possible through the active manipulation and mobilisation of topographies, climatic conditions, vegetation and animals. But the military has not monopolised the mobilisation of nature. Protesters against militarisation have consistently drawn on images of peaceful and productive civilian environments as the preferable alternative to destructive tanks and bombs. Written in an accessible style, Mobilizing nature will appeal to readers interested in modern France, environmental history, military geographies and histories, anti-military protests, and environmentalism.

Europe

Manchester University Press

Mobilizing nature traces the environmental history of war and militarization in France, from the creation of Châlons Camp in 1857 to military environmentalist policies in the twentieth century. It offers a fresh perspective on the well-known histories of the Franco-Prussian War, Western Front (1914-18), Second World War, Cold War and the anti-base campaign at Larzac, whilst uncovering the largely 'hidden' history of the numerous military bases and other installations that pepper the French countryside. Mobilizing nature argues that the history of war and militarization can only be fully understood if human and environmental histories are considered in tandem. Preparing for and conducting wars were only made possible through the active manipulation and mobilization of topographies, climatic conditions, vegetation and animals. But the military has not monopolized the mobilization of nature. Protesters against militarization have consistently drawn on images of peaceful and productive civilian environments as the preferable alternative to destructive tanks and bombs. Written in an accessible style, Mobilizing nature will appeal to readers interested in modern France, environmental history, military geographies and histories, anti-military protests, and environmentalism.

Emma lives on a little farm, just around the corner from Bluebell Wood. Robin and Sparrow love to visit the farm, to steal the cream from the milk bottles and talk to the animals. But who is the new puppy running around the garden? What is the strange bird that talks like a person? And will Robin survive his brush with Smoky the cat? Meet Emma and all her pets and friends as they walk through Bluebell Wood together.

Emma and Her Friends from Bluebell Wood

Athena Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pearson, Chris. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pearson, Chris

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pearson, Chris. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris (Animal Lives)

Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris (Animal Lives)

Aftermath

Mobilizing nature: The environmental history of war and militarization in modern France (Cultural History of Modern War)

Mobilizing nature: The environmental history of war and militarization in modern France (Cultural History of Modern War)

Emma and Her Friends from Bluebell Wood