Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb: A Chronicle of Sensibility to Animals

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

This unusual study summarizes human attitudes toward animals from the
earliest writings to the start of the 20th century. After this era,
sensibilities toward animals began to decline until the humanitarian
revival of the 1970s. Rod Preece is a professor of political science at
Wilfrid Laurier University and the author of Animals and Nature:
Cultural Myths, Cultural Realities, a study that received several
awards.

In Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb, Preece quotes substantial
excerpts from myth, religion, poetry, philosophy, essays, novels, and
even parliamentary proceedings to build his argument. Long passages from
these varied sources make up a significant part of the text. The study
is intended to represent “a microcosm of humanity’s finer
musings.” He concentrates on the Western experience, since he finds
that Aboriginal and Asian cultures have, until recently, changed much
less.

The study is structured historically. Preece moves from attitudes to
animals in myth and the classical world through the Dark Ages and the
Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the Romantic Era, and finally
Darwinian and Victorian attitudes. There are very substantial
references.

Preece has tackled an unusual topic with patience and passion. The
matter is timely, with the increasing human population threatening the
survival of so many species. The wealth of historical references adds
unusual dimensions to this fine study.