The Birth of a Jungle Animality in Progressive-Era U.S. Literature and Culture

"Rigorously researched, adeptly argued, and accessibly written, Michael Lundblad's The Birth of a Jungle deserves to be read cover to cover. Illustrated with a plethora of exciting case studies--including the eroticism of Jack London's depiction of wolf-human contacts, the public electrocution of a circus elephant as evincing 1900s class warfare, and the import of racial lynching in the Tarzan series--this book brilliantly reveals a history of animality sutured in the figure of the 'jungle' as an organizing discourse for turn-of-twentieth century literature, law, science, economics, politics, and everyday life." --Marlon B. Ross, author of Manning the Race: Reforming Black Men in the Jim Crow Era
"The Birth of a Jungle is an important, timely consideration of both actual flesh-and-blood animals and how humans have been understood through a discourse of animality. After reading Lundblad's book, it will be impossible not to recognize the prevalence of animality in U.S. literature of this period." --Rachel Adams, author of Continental Divides: Remapping the Cultures of North America
"A substantial contribution to modern American fiction studies as well as interdisciplinary animal studies. Lundblad's literary and cultural history uncovers striking alternatives to Darwin and Freud running wild in the period obsessed with identifying, interpreting, and ultimately controlling 'animal instincts.' By problematizing histories that animalize animals alongside humans, The Birth of the Jungle explains why the scholarly practice of literary animal studies can never quite be tamed by the mandates of advocacy and activism." --Susan McHugh, author of Animal Stories: Narratingacross Species Lines and Dog
"Michael Lundblad's The Birth of a Jungle offers a profound and much needed intersectional analysis of animality in relation to such themes as gender and sexuality, class, race, and the natural environment. Exploring the complex and complicated discourse on 'the