Arks for Empires: American Zoos, Imperialism, and the Struggle for International Wildlife Protection, 1889--1936 (2012)
Cincinnati, Noah (Author)
Johns Hopkins University
Walters, Ronald
Edition Details: Advisor: Walters, Ronald
Physical Details: 600 pp.
Language: English
"Arks for Empires: American Zoos, Imperialism, and the Struggle for International Wildlife Protection, 1889-1936" argues for the importance of American zoos in the shaping of international environmental governance during the early twentieth century. In examining the institutional and international histories of two of the leading zoos in the United States, the National Zoological Park and New York Zoological Park, I contend that prior to the age of ecology and "biodiversity" American zoos and their associated natural history museums calibrated their global wildlife protection work around their primary goals of collection access. This study begins with an examination of the institutional origins of these two zoos during the 1890s. At their onset, founders at both zoos embraced wildlife protection as critical to their institutions' mandates for exhibition and public education. By examining animal acquisition data, numerous periodicals, and zoo officials' correspondence and publications, this study retraces the intricate collection networks that zoos utilized in order to obtain living animals. Zoo managers learned to work with the professional wildlife dealers, hunters, sportsmen, scientists, European wildlife protectors, and colonial administrators that shaped the political economy of the global wildlife trade. In doing so, zoo officials negotiated their institutions' collection needs with their protection values as they walked fine lines between legitimate collecting and illicit wildlife trafficking, scientific study and commercial profit, education and entertainment, and protecting and killing. Through the global wildlife trade, both zoos gradually built networks that facilitated the emergence of an international wildlife protection movement. By 1930, zoo officials' work to protect wildlife commodity flows and to insulate their own institutions contributed to the birth of the first American regime for international wildlife protection, which was as revolutionary as it was problematic. Ultimately, the regime faced numerous setbacks revealing a period of uncertainty concerning American leadership in international environmental governance. In revealing the importance of American zoos to crafting a novel international wildlife protection movement, this dissertation uncovers the complex webs of scientific authority, market capitalism, imperialism, and violence that shaped the politics of environmental reform and American international organizations during the early twentieth century.
...MoreDescription Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. (2012). ProQuest Doc. ID 1037336203.
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