Bears: A Brief History

by Bernd Brunner, Lori Lantz (Translator)

This engaging book examines the shared history of people and bears. Hopscotching through history, literature, and science, Bernd Brunner presents a rich compendium of the interactions between the two species and explores how bears have become central figures in our inventory of myths and dreams. He reveals the remarkable extent to which human feelings about bears have been—and still are—mixed. People have venerated, killed, caressed, tortured, nurtured, eaten, worshipped, and despised bears. Interestingly, the varied dealings of humans with bears raise the same question over and again: do our images of bears have much in common with the animal as it really is?

The book uncovers new and little-known stories and facts about bears in European, North American, Japanese, Russian, and South and Southeast Asian cultures. Taken together, these perspectives show us new things about the animals we thought we knew so well. Quirky and bizarre anecdotes, scientific information on bears threatened with extinction in some areas, a discussion of the phenomenon of “bearanoia,” and more than one hundred historical illustrations contribute to this unique account of the shared history between bears and humans and the continuing presence of bears in our personal and collective dreams.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Science, Cultural, Biology

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Bernd Brunner, a graduate of the Free University of Berlin and Berlin School of Economics, is an independent scholar, freelance writer, and editor of nonfiction books. He is the author of The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium. Lori Lantz received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from UCLA and attended the Free University of Berlin as a Fulbright Scholar.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first bear encounter occurred a year after we'd moved to central Pennsylvania. Picking lettuce in the garden, I looked up to see a full grown black bear standing about twenty five yards away. Oddly enough, I wasn't terrified. My first thought was to get the dog inside before he tried any heroics. I was in the house, reaching for the camera, when I saw the bear run past my front window, then disappear into a wooded area behind the house next door. I might have thought I'd imagined the whole thing but for a neighbor crying, "Did you see it? Did you see it?"

Since then I've seen one bear sauntering down the middle of the road late one afternoon, another quietly exiting my backyard through the arbor on a foggy morning, and most amazingly, a big fella making a well-timed dash across a four-lane highway, completely unharmed, leaving astonished grins on the faces of passing motorists.



Humans and bears have always had a complex relationship.

Our forefathers venerated, killed, caressed, tortured, nurtured, ate, respected, and despised them. Many cultures felt a spiritual kinship with the animals. The bear's ability to stand upright on two legs led many to believe they were somehow related to man.

Brunner's book provides an excellent look at these fascinating creatures throughout history. From our ancestor's earliest impressions of the beasts to bears on unicycles, from bears in mythology to the ubiquitous stuffed toys, little is left off the table. There's even a chapter on how bears became popular literary characters. The text is well researched, pleasantly readable and liberally sprinkled with illustrations.


It's not that difficult to live alongside bears. As we humans spread out, we encroach more and more upon their territory. Encounters are likely. If you keep your distance and respect their privacy, they will usually do the same for you. When bears start hanging around heavily populated areas, it usually does not end well for the bear. Help discourage their visits by waiting until morning to put trash cans outside. Bring your bird feeders inside at night.



“The best way of being kind to bears is not to be very close to them.”
Margaret Atwood

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, let's list all the non-textual reasons I gave this book five stars.

1) In hardcover, the book was a beautifully sized 8 1/4 by 5 inches, which I haven't really encountered in American books, but is an extremely comfortable size (and portable) size.

2) Maybe it was to pad out the relative brevity of the book (236 pages), but it had really big lovely margins on the outside of the text. About an inch, which comes to (by the above dimensions) about 20% of the width of the page. I haven't seen this before, but it made reading the book extremely satisfying. Pages were easy on the eyes, and you had a sense of quick progress, even though it had just reduced the number of words per page.

3) The book is littered with fascinating illustrations, sketches, and early lithographs of bears, many of them tucked neatly into those big margins.



The text itself is well written and concise, an amalgam of anecdotes and history that sketch our Brunner's inquiry into how humans have identified with or categorized bears over the course of their existence. Most interestingly, he shows how humans have always identified strongly with bears, especially in Europe and North America, where knowledge of apes was especially scant and bears seemed like our closest relative in the animal kingdom.

Some choice bits:

On page 25 I learned that the word berserk derives from the Old Norse "berserker", warriors who served Odin and were turn into bears when enraged. ("Beri"=bear, "serkr"=shirt, "berserker"= clothed as a bear.)

On page 98, I learned that despite being primarily solitary, bears communicate with one another by rubbing their scent on areas or scratching trees, often to mark a watering hole or a deer crossing.

And this mind blowing little tidbit from pages 107-108:

...the Ainu captured cubs and kept them until adulthood... One aspect of the Ainu's dealings with bears however, has tended to disturb folklorists or to be dismissed by them: in Ainu traditional society the women were responsible for raising the bears they captured. Ainu women... cared for the animals with great patience and also frequently nursed them -- a practice that was not at all "secret"... The Ainu are not the only women to have nursed bear cubs. Samuel Hearne... reported that "it is common for the Southern Indians to tame and domesticate the young [bear:] cubs... the Indians oblige their wives who have milk in their breasts to suckle them."

Holy. Crap. This is why I read, for little gems like that last passage which blur the lines on how I thought the world worked.

[Anya Kaplan Hartnett - AKH! · Rating 5 out of 5]

now THIS is how you write a bear book !! learned ample bear facts (ask me abt cave bear theories and Transylvanian bear mythos) and enjoyed the historical illustrations most of all .. 🐻 would recommend this book to anyone interested in the HBI (human-bear interface) not an exhaustive read of course but a thoroughly entertaining place to start.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very charming with a lot of fun illustrations. I learned me some things about bears.

[Alex Dove · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book, but trying to parse all of human/bear history into roughly 250 pages before the bibliography while also including numerous pictures may have been a bit ambitious. There were multiple times when I felt the author trailed off, suddenly changed topics, or presentented some outdated belief without addressing why it is outdated or what the current understanding of bears is.
A good place to start if you are interested in bears, but each chapter could be (and most likely is) its own book.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When paleolithic man first encountered the prehistoric ancestor of the modern bear, he saw an animal capable of standing on two legs. Since Northern Europeans did not see the great apes until the 18th or 19th century, bears became our ancestors in myths and folklore. Brunner's book traces all the ways bears have understood and misunderstood throughout our history. Whereas I found his book on the moon a bit tedious, on bears he is consistently entertaining. He draws on science, folklore, and literature to present his history.

I have never cared one way or the other about bears, and that turns out to be just as well since Brunner says they have no particular interest in humans. They avoid us as much as possible, although they will kill and eat us under the right circumstances. Those circumstances usually involve our surprising them or having the misfortune of happening upon a mother bear with her cubs. If you happen upon a single bear, Brunner says not to run. Make a loud noise and throw a rock it. The consensus on grizzly bear protection is to lie face down on the ground, let it sniff around on you, and hope it goes away. (Has that advice ever been followed?)

[Juliet Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book, packed with illustrations and photos, is a brief history of bears and their relationships with humans.

The book starts with a brief look at the different species of bears alive in the world then looks at different aspects of our relationships with them going back to how stone age humans may have interacted with the cave bear.

Brunner examines how humans have interacted with bears, from hunting through shamanism to domestication, cuddly toys and circus performances. He doesn't shy away from describing how cruel humans have been to bears, even while exploring all the things that draw us to bears, their faces and their ability to stand up on two legs. There are many fascinating facts in this book and it's well worth reading by anyone interested in bears, though the reader should be aware before reading, that humans don't come out of this well and it's an uncomfortable read at times.

The book was originally written in German (and is beautifully translated) and to some extent focuses on the findings of German scientists and zoos, while giving a good overview of bears across the world.

[Pierre · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been so much better. The book chronicles the history of bear/human interactions. The book only briefly covers the natural history of the bear, sadly. But the history itself was pretty interesting and well documented.

The reason why I gave this book only two stars was because of the value judgments that the author (or perhaps the german language translator) added to the book. The sections on bear hunting ignored vast bodies of lore and scientific literature, and strongly took the side of anti-hunting activists in the NJ hunting controversy. Circuses and zoos were categorically slandered as unhealthy for bears. And advice for avoiding harm during human/bear encounters was declared "beyond the scope" of the book.

Bah. This book could have been so much better.

[Carly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was full of many interesting facts that I really enjoyed. The reason for the lower rating was because I wasn't fond of hearing all the many stories of how humans are horrible to bears. While important to know about, not something I want to casually read in my free time.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was brief, and it was about bears; what more could I want? It was also informative and very charming in a compact, guidebook kind of way, and told me what I wanted to know. Also: great cover.

[KC Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, in-depth account of human's mostly vile "relationship" with bears. The book isn't a complete comprehensive depiction of our monstrous, dare I say grizzly treatment of bears. But it does a good job of providing a sad picture of the origins of the human/bear encounters that have always ended poorly for the bear.

I appreciate that the book very much looks down on even our current treatment of the bear, and perhaps all animals. Imprisoning animals in zoos, sideshow circuses, animal fighting, and of course inhumane torture (bile extraction) are all extensively covered and shown as barbaric.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

How could anyone not want to read this book with such a quirky title.
It did bring up some interesting points about how bears were the most human animal for Europeans for most of their history. On the whole it's maybe not a book that is going to stick with me, but it was a decent read.
This was one of my fun unexpected discoveries from browsing through the library catalogue looking for something else.

[Kirk Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a charmer: the comfortable size, the design of the dust cover, the perfect two shades of green on the hard cover beneath, the choice of typeface with the engaging question marks (I call them fascinators), the comfortable margins, the widespread illustrations with the consistent aesthetic, to the text itself, which strives for neither too much nor too little.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've found myself more and more drawn to bears, and my wife laughs whenever I say that outloud, but it's true. That's why when I found this book on Amazon I snatched it up. It's surprisingly difficult to find books about bears by themselves, or at least books that just give you some kind of background and facts about bears period. This book is probably more of a cultural history for the casual reader who's interested. It's more about how human beings have seen and reimagined bears and sometimes abused bears for their own purposes. Whether it's studying folklore, religious imagery, factual historical records, or simply just the actual bears themselves, this book is a must read for anyone who just wants to know how human beings have come to know and react to bears as a fellow species.

This is a small and wonderful books for anyone who, like me, grew up with teddy bears or else went to the zoo and drove their mom crazy because they refused to walk away to the other exhibits because Grizzly bears are awesome.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting facts and stories.

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that showed what utter dicks we've been to bears

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and informative compact mix of anthropology, folklore, and natural history. Originally published in Germany.

[Sabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

No chapter on Paddington? Weird.

[Bethanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this as partial background research for work (museum with upcoming wildlife exhibit). Surprised myself and really enjoyed the book (which is shocking because I'd much rather be reading about art or history or design - anything but earth sciences). Brunner's book is extremely well researched but written in language that anyone can understand. The chapters are divided by topics, starting with paleo, then going into transformations (myths from a number of cultures), history, conflicts with humans, substitutes. I think the cheekiest chapter title has to be "Bearanoia," which of course covers the fears of humans dealing with these creatures. Apparently long before Darwin or even taxonomies, people believed there was some sort of connection between bears and humans due to the animals sometimes standing on their hind legs. Over time some peoples have adopted cubs (until they got too big to handle), and aside from Victorian versions of Stupid Pet Tricks (bears on unicycles, dancing bears, bears comically descending water slides), there are some parts that are really hard to take, including a reference to a bear pit at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where according to one prisoner's testimony, one Jewish prisoner per day was thrown into the pit to be torn apart by bears. I have a number of peer reviewed papers that have put me to sleep, I also have a number of scholarly books that may as well put me to sleep (scientists writing for other scientists), but this has really been a joy to discover. I happened to stumble across the book in a university library and I'm glad I decided to add it to the pile. Completely engrossing and Brunner really makes me embarrassed to be human when you read about some of the indignities these poor beasts have been subjected to in the name of both entertainment and science.

[Sesana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is what the Reaktion Animal series aspires to: a brief, yet fairly comprehensive overview of one particular type of animal. In this case, the bear. Bernd Brunner's take is more comprehensive (it ought to be, being nearly a hundred pages longer than most books in the Animal series), less concerned with illustrations (though there are plenty, there are less, and they're actually more informative), and hardly concerned with biological matters at all. The last is perhaps my favorite part about the book. I can find any number of books that will tell me the dry, scientific facts about how big different species of bears get, what they eat, where they live, how old they can be, etc. I'm far more interested in the sociological history of the animal. Brunner delivers above and beyond anything I saw in the Animal series when I was reading it. That said, if you are interested in the scientific and biological facts about bears, you'll need to look elsewhere.

[Kenrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exercise in cultural zoology; Brunner turns an impressive swath of research into a slim volume that ranges from prehistory to now, from cave bears to sun bears to polar bears, from Inuit hunting strategies to the first reported observations of American grizzly bears by Europeans to the birth of the Teddy Bear.

Brunner presents his findings in clear prose, interspersed with dry wit. Be warned: there is not a strong central theme or sense of progression to the book, and the writing and presentation can a bit academic. Even so, the material presented is so utterly compelling that I can't see giving this book anything less than four stars.

Where else are you going to read about the time an American botanist tricked a European zoologist into thinking he'd seen a bear rip a hole in a cow and blow into it until the cow swelled up and died?

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books with men punching predators in the face on the cover are enormously appealing to me, as are books with the word "brief" right there in the title. I was not disappointed on either count with this book. It's a well-written accounting of human and bear relations through the centuries, with a greater focus on the cultural aspects of those relations than the scientific and ecological aspects.

It's also a really well designed and illustrated book. I like it as an object to have around, in addition to a being a good book to read.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The packaging of this book is so adorable: lavishly illustrated with a petite trim size. Unfortunately the images are of varied quality and are barely discussed. The text in general is strangely meandering. The author seems to have taken a grab bag of bear facts and assembled them randomly. It isn't even chronological! Still, I picked up some fun facts

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bears are misunderstood and loved, and this book provides a history of why. I like how this books covers the history of bear-human relations. It isn't a natural history of bears, but a true history of bears and the people who love, hate, wonder about and abuse them.

[El gato calculista · Rating 3 out of 5]

a pretty good brief history. i loved the illustrations and the different bear angles that were explored.

i found it pretty eurocentric though, which really bothered me.

i did learn some useful things about how to avoid being eaten by a bear.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bears: A Brief History by Bernd Brunner (Yale University Press 2007) (599.78). This is a brief history of bear - human interaction. The bears are losing. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 03/0/2008.

[Chris R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

now i know a lot of facts about bears.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover is what sold me.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite bear book yet.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diverting, anecdotal cultural history of bears--a miscellany, of sorts. Interesting illustrations from the 19th century and earlier. Not much on bears' natural history.