Book Review: Humans and Animals: A Geography of Coexistence

Homo sapien is just one species among millions of other animals here on Planet Earth. In the space of just a few thousand years, however, humans have altered the balance of life on this cosmic speck in ways large and small. That alone would be reason enough to warrant the publication of this volume, an examination of human-animal relationships. The editors provide an additional motive, pointing out that “as animals ourselves, our very survival as a species is intimately connected to these others” (xi). It behooves us, then, to understand how we can all just get along together, as denoted by “coexistence” in the subtitle.