Promotional Information

The struggle between obtaining popular appeal and portraying accurate science on film

Table of Contents

Prologue

1 / Hunting with the Camera

2 / Science versus Showmanship on the Silent Screen

3 / Zooming In on Animals' Private Lives

4 / Wildlife Conservation through a Wide-Angle Lens

5 / Disney's True-Life Adventures

6 / Domesticating Nature on the Television Set

7 / A Ringside Seat in the Making of a Pet Star

8 / Global Visions, Tourist Dreams

Epilogue

Notes

Credits

Index

About the Author

Gregg Mitman is William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Interim Director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reviews

"How the wildlife documentary got from Roosevelt to Disneyworld is a story of charlatans, hucksters, crooks, imaginative cameramen, brilliant zoology and shameless appeal to the sex and violence of life as cinema audiences have grown to expect it to be. Mitman ... tells the American version of this lurid celluloid safari." Tim Radford, The Guardian "American wildlife film-makers ... abandoned truth in favor of more alluring lode stars. Reel Nature is an admirable history of why they did so . .. . Very well told." Stephen Mills, Times Literary Supplement "While nature films have had a positive impact on our understanding of nature, the whole truth about our place in the web of life has been left on the cutting-room floor." Booklist "A wonderful book that takes the reader into the worlds of dog and dolphin TV stars, on-screen wildlife conservation, and popular nature films. Readers will never see their animal familiars in the same way again." Donna Haraway, University of California,Santa Cruz