Bear with Me by Daniel Horowitz
From teddy bears and Winnie-the-Pooh to Smokey Bear, Yogi Bear, and Cocaine Bear, American popular culture has been fascinated with real and fictional bears for more than two centuries. Bears are ubiquitous, appearing in advertisements, as logos for sports teams, and central characters in children’s books, cartoons, movies, and video games. In Bear With Me, Daniel Horowitz presents a vibrant history of the pedestrian and celebrity bears who have captured our imaginations and infiltrated our everyday lives. He shows that bears’ ability to represent and evoke both terror and comfort makes them well-suited for their omnipresence. Today, cultural depictions of bears largely encompass examples of human-bear relationships, reciprocity, and emotional engagement. Reminders that climate change threatens the lives of polar bears engender feelings of empathy while news of bear attacks drive us to fascinated fear. Whether examining the subculture of gay bears or the deadly consequences of anthropomorphizing animals, Horowitz charts the complexities and depth of American culture’s unique and enduring relationship with bears.
“Bear With Me is a fascinating and deeply meditative two-hundred-year cultural history of America’s popular obsession with bearsAnalyzing an impressive range of folklore, live entertainments, literature, film, toys, cartoons, television, posters, social movements, and social media, the distinguished historian Daniel Horowitz forcefully places bears - representational and real—at the center of the American experience.” - Janet M. Davis, author of The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America
“In this eye-popping survey of bears in American culture from the colonial period to the present, Daniel Horowitz tackles an enormous subject with a passion and a curiosity that prove contagious. Bears entered American culture in droves and under many guises. Horowitz has the audacity to embrace this complexity rather than explain it away.” - Jon T. Coleman, author of Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation
"This is a detailed, entertaining, and informative breakdown of bears in popular culture. . . . Bear With Me is a revealing cultural history that puts bears in popular culture, including Yogi Bear and Paddington, into greater context." - Ryan Prado Foreword Review
“In this eye-popping survey of bears in American culture from the colonial period to the present, Daniel Horowitz tackles an enormous subject with a passion and a curiosity that prove contagious. Bears entered American culture in droves and under many guises. Horowitz has the audacity to embrace this complexity rather than explain it away.” - Jon T. Coleman, author of Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation
"This is a detailed, entertaining, and informative breakdown of bears in popular culture. . . . Bear With Me is a revealing cultural history that puts bears in popular culture, including Yogi Bear and Paddington, into greater context." - Ryan Prado Foreword Review
Daniel Horowitz is Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American Studies, Emeritus at Smith College and the author of many books, most recently, American Dreams, American Nightmares: Culture and Crisis in Residential Real Estate from the Great Recession to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781478028826 |
| ISBN 10 | 1478028823 |
| Title | Bear with Me |
| Author | Daniel Horowitz |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Duke University Press |
| Year published | 2025-08-22 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |