Animal Century

Mark Gold. Jon Carpenter Publishing, 228pp, pbk, £12-99.

Animal Century charts the development of the animal protection movement through the 20th century. Subtitled A celebration of changing attitudes to animals, the message is essentially positive, despite the massive scale of animal (ab)use throughout the century and the lack of progress on many fronts.

The author, a former director of Animal Aid and long-standing campaigner, is well qualified to judge both the successes and the failures of the animal protection movement over the past 100 years. Rather than provide an exhaustive history of the movement, Mark Gold devotes most of the book's ten chapters to a particular area of concern, including narrative interviews with key figures in the movement. Although this inevitably places the emphasis on the last forty years, the immense contributions made by campaigners such as Henry Salt, Nina Duchess of Hamilton and Louise Lind-af-Hageby are certainly not forgotten. Animal Century also concentrates on the animal protection movement in Britain, although chapter nine includes a brief review of the movement in other countries and Australian Peter Singer, Indian Maneka Gandhi and Moroccan Ali Hassani (of animal-free circus fame) are among the featured campaigners. The book ends with a review of the progress made through the century and the prospects for the future.

Animal Century makes fascinating reading and dovetails neatly with Hilda Kean's Animal Rights which concentrates on the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries. Whilst both are essential reading, Animal Century has the added virtue of immediate relevance to today's campaigners. Although the dawn of a new millennium is no time for self-congratulation, many readers of Animal Century will be able to say that they too played a part in the campaigns described in this excellent book.

Paul Appleby, October 1999

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This page created 11 March 2000 and updated 24 December 2000 by Paul Appleby.