A history of animal advocacy in America: Social change, gender, and cultural values, 1865-1975

The formation of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866 marked the beginning of an organized animal advocacy movement in America. Currently, over 7,000 groups, representing ten million members, agitate and educate on issues concerning the rights and treatment of animals. My dissertation presents an historical examination of the movement and its impact on our socio-economic and cultural interactions with nonhumans. This study traces the cause from nineteenth-century roots to twentieth-century events, but specifically emphasizes the post-World War II era when animal advocacy experienced dramatic growth. Early on humanitarians initiated a diverse agenda, and post-war activists built upon the tactical and ideological legacies of their predecessors. The movement succeeded in making certain elements of its cause more acceptable to growing numbers of Americans and this mainstreaming of issues facilitated limited, but noticeable changes in society's relationship with nonhumans. Few Americans today perceive the consumption of animals in the same manner as earlier generations.;Despite the movement's influence, most scholars have neglected the complex, often contradictory relationship between humans and the nonhuman world through time as well as the effect of social change upon that relationship. Historically, people struggled between actions, frequently consumer-related, that devastated nature and killed animals and, conversely, their affection for companion animals and reverence for the beauty of natural environments. Similarly, throughout its history the movement has evolved within a dynamic milieu of industrialization, the growth of science, the rise of rampant consumerism, the emergence of a post-industrial society, expanded leisure time, militarism, and environmental and liberation movements. Consequently, a social history of this cause enhances not only our understanding of the movement itself, but also the socio-economic and cultural changes accompanying the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial order.;Animals do not possess the capacity or power to assert their historical significance to society and consequently we overlook the connections between ourselves and the nonhuman creatures so central to our lives. This research begins to remedy that oversight by placing animals and those who fight for them within the human socio-economic and cultural context of American history.