Have you ever heard of the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)? Do you ever wonder where the animal protection laws come from? Today you will find out. We are having a conversation with professor Ernest Freeberg, who wrote the book A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement.
About Ernest Freeberg
Ernest Freeberg grew up in New England, attended Middlebury College, and worked as a reporter for Maine Public Radio. Now a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of Tennessee, he has published three award-winning books:
- The Education of Laura Bridgman: First Deaf and Blind Person to Learn Language
- Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent
- The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America
A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement
In Gilded Age America, people and animals lived cheek-by-jowl in environments that were dirty and dangerous to man and beast alike.
The industrial city brought suffering, but it also inspiredcompassion for animals that fueled a controversial anti-cruelty movement. From the center of these debates, Henry Bergh launched a shocking campaign to grant rights to animals.
A Traitor to His Species is revelatory social history, awash with colorful characters. Cheered on by thousands of men and women who joined his cause, Bergh fought with robber barons, Five Points gangs, and legendary impresario P.T. Barnum, as they pushed for new laws to protect trolley horses, livestock, stray dogs, and other animals.
Raucous and entertaining, A Traitor to His Species tells the story of a remarkable man who gave voice to the voiceless and shaped our modern relationship with animals.
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