Review by Choice Review
Although When Species Meet includes the summary statement "... to contemplate the interactions of humans with many kinds of critters ...," the focus of this volume by renowned posthumanist Haraway (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) is primarily on dogs, of which much of the attention is placed on her favorite breed, the Australian Shepherd. This book feels like three separate works mashed into one with no defined audience. Readers will find themselves yo-yoed back and forth between a philosophical discussion, an analytical examination, and a memoir. Redeeming factors of thought-provoking passages are scattered throughout the work, but only insatiable fans of Haraway will appreciate her many diversions down the paths that become much more personal than purposeful. However, for those that can't get enough of Haraway prose, almost one-third of the book focuses on her comments and reflections on the citations she references throughout her 12 chapters. Summing Up: Optional. Lower division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. K. K. Goldbeck Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Whom and what do I touch when I touch my dog? Haraway, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, ponders this question in her study of what happens when human and animal meet. When different species interact, the question of how to get along is paramount, and learning to knot together each species' histories is the focus of Haraway's discussion. In highly academic language, the author examines the interface between humans and the other animal species with which we cohabit the planet mostly dogs, but also tigers, wombats, cats, sheep, and baboons and speculates on the philosophical, emotional, and biological bases of those interactions. Whether she's discussing the conversations that go on with training her dogs for agility trials, the ethics behind cloning, the alleviation of both mental and physical suffering in laboratory animals, or the animal-technology combination that we call crittercam, the author flexes the mind of the reader as she finds the connections and reports on the dialogues between nonhuman animals and the human animals they meet.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This eclectic, semi-academic volume is one part philosophical treatise, one part rambling memoir and one part affectionate look at a singular Australian sheepdog named Cayenne ("It?s hard to be grumpy myself in the morning watching this kind of joyful doggish beginning!"). With intellectual precision and obvious enthusiasm, author and "posthumanities" professor Haraway (The Companion Species Manifesto) delves into topics as diverse as the rigors of breeding purebreds, the ethics of using animals in laboratories and the grand leaps of anthropomorphism people use to justify thousands of dollars in medical care for a pet. A professor in the History of Consciousness program at U.C. Santa Cruz, Haraway?s prose is rigorous but readable, her ideas backed up with generally clear examples; she can, however, veer into abstract academic language ("[People and animals] in intra-action do not admit of preset taxonomic calculation") and gratuitous digression (as in a distracting chapter on her sportscaster father). These complaints aside, Haraway?s serious, challenging approach to the human-animal relationship web should prove a novel, gratifying read for animal-owning science and philosophy buffs. (Jan.) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Review by Library Journal Review
Part memoir and equal parts philosophy, biology, and cultural theory, this book's central story is the growing bond between leading science studies scholar Haraway (history of consciousness, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz; The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness) and her canine companion, Cayenne, as they train for and compete in the sport of dog agility. She also explores a broad range of other relationships, from those among farmers, herding dogs, and sheep to the symbiosis of microscopic organisms, concluding that, far from being separate, companion species are shaping one another as they develop together. The writing is as varied as the content, ranging from dense and academic language that could be daunting to general readers to personal emails to her dog-agility friends. Though she claims that interspecies relations are too complex for absolute judgments and maintains human privilege to use (nonhuman) animals as workers, research subjects, and a food source, Haraway acknowledges the devastating consequences of our current relationships with them. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with large subject collections.-Leslie Patterson, Chicago P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
