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Topsy: The Startling Story Of The Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum, And The American Wizard, Thomas Edison (2013)

by Michael Daly(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0802119042 (ISBN13: 9780802119049)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press

review 1: I thought this was an enjoyable read...an Erik Larsen-esque microhistory of a couple of different things: 1) circuses in the US, focused on chronicling animal abuse therein, 2) the Current Wars, 3) Edison in his later years, and 4) electrocution. You could probably name others, but those are the ones I took away from it.I will admit that I 100% read this book because of the "Topsy" episode of Bob's Burgers, but I think Topsy's story (even though she plays a very minor role in the book because there is just not that much of a historical record of her life) is a lot deeper than "that elephant that Edison filmed being electrocuted." The thing that most stuck with me was the maltreatment that she and the others endured (at a time when the thinking in animal training was that t... morehey must be beaten into submission rather than using positive reinforcement)....it is pretty hard to stomach.On a lighter note, the economist in me very much appreciated this passage regarding how Barnum got out of paying the 20% import duty on an imported elephant if he could show that it was imported 'for the good of the United States through an intention to improve the native stock'...essentially by proving that he intended to breed the elephant to expand the U.S. herd:"We now depend on the Old World for our supply of these noble animals. Were we to be engaged in a war with all the rest of the world lasting, say, a hundred years, we should become absolutely destitute of elephants, and the misery that would result therefrom would be appalling. What would our children do without elephants to amuse them? What would the sick do without the sight of the elephants to invigorate them? What would the Nation do when the loathsome press of Europe would sneer at us as an elephantless people? To be truly patriotic we must rid ourselves of the abject dependence on other nations for our elephants."Basically, it's import substitution elephantization. You can thank me later.
review 2: This book is the sad but well-written story of Topsy the elephant, whose death had been filmed in "Electrocuting An Elephant" in the early 20th century. In telling Topsy's tale, the author also speaks to an era where elephants were treated brutally and little understood. The story of the war of the currents, and circus rivalries, and the tales of other elephants in the late 1800s / early 1900s are also explored in this very informative and well written book. Sadly, the afterward mentions circuses in modern times that have been cited and fined for mistreatment of elephants - so while we are certainly no longer putting elephants through the torture they went through in centuries past, we are still not treating them with the respect these magnificent creatures deserve. less

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