London Zoo examined in its nineteenth-century context, looking at its
effect on cultural and social life.
At the dawn of the Victorian era, London Zoo became one of the
metropolis's premier attractions. The crowds drawn to its bear pit
included urban promenaders, gentlemen menagerists, Indian shipbuilders
and Persian princes - and Charles Darwin himself. This book shows that
the impact of the zoo's extensive collection of animals can only be
understood in the context of a wide range of contemporary approaches to
nature, and that it was not merely a manifestation of British imperial
culture.
The author demonstrates how the early history of the zoo illuminates
three important aspects of the history of nineteenth-century Britain:
the politics of culture and leisure in a new public domain which
included museums and art galleries; the professionalisation and
popularisation of science in a consumer society; and the meanings of the
animal world for a growing urban population. Weaving these threads
together, he presents a flexible frame of analysis to explain how the
zoo was established, how it pursued its policies of animal collection,
and how it responded to changing social conditions.