nd perhaps most imaginatively of all, childrearing and animal training manuals to show the ubiquity of protectionist ideologies in unexpected places.
Weaving facets of the Mary Ellen Wilson story throughout, Pearson’s text is organized thematically and chronologically. Chapter 1 reveals the diverse historical locations of social thought fusing children and animals. Chapter 2 unpacks the dialectical relationship between teleological discourses of civilization, cruelty, barbarism, and the changing philosophical and legal landscape of modern liberal thought. Chapter 3 grapples with the conundrum of liberalism directly--in reconciling classical liberal thought with a new positive conception of the right to protection from cruelty. Chapter 4 explores the question of sentimentalism and the “long arms of the law” in theory and in practice. Finally, chapter 5 analyzes the growing rift in these dual movements after 1900 with the growth of the Progressive movement, which focused on solving the systemic, structural causes of cruelty to animals and children, rather than individualizing cruelty as the product of an immoral owner, or drunken parent. A new child welfare movement aimed to provide relief and education to help children remain with their families--rather than remove them; similarly, new animal protection organizations like the Horse Aid Society of New York attempted to improve the welfare of working equines and their human drivers through better veterinary care, education, family assistance, and comfortable accommodations. This is a fascinating historical turn that deserves further attention; such tensions between individualized and structural solutions to cruelty remain a conundrum of modern liberalism to this day.
. Lela B. Costin, “Unraveling the Mary Ellen Legend: Origins of the ‘Cruelty’ Movement,” Social Service Review 65 (June 1991): 203-223.
. Diane L. Beers, For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 2006).
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.
Janet M. Davis. Review of Pearson, Susan J., The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America.
H-SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews.
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