{"product_id":"songsters-book-ducan-frost-9781032667638","title":"Songsters","description":"\u003cp\u003eSongbirds were deeply embedded in early modern society, appearing in a startling array of contexts, social settings and even intellectual discourses. In notable contrast to other early modern animals, they held multiple, contradictory roles in everyday life, simultaneously treasured as musical companions, consumed for food, hunted for sport and vilified as agricultural pests. Moreover, the same species could be kept and trained across the social spectrum. By examining the intricate dynamics of human-avian interactions, this book reveals how songbirds actively shaped the social, economic and mental landscape of early modern England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Tracing human-songbird interaction from capture, purchase and training, to rhetorical uses in political, ethnographic and religious texts, this book highlights the substantial songbird marketplace, the pan-European dissemination of songbird-training literature and how different social groups engaged with this literature. It demonstrates how well-trained birds signalled social status and a mastery of nature. Beyond their physical presence, songbirds deeply influenced early modern thought: they were championed as paragons of Renaissance pedagogy, their behaviors provided rich allegorical material for political and moral literature, and their agency repeatedly challenged contemporary notions of human exceptionalism. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book reveals that early moderns were highly aware of the avians living alongside them, recognising distinct ‘personalities’ within the birds. This book intersects early modern history, environmental history, animal studies, the history of the book, popular culture, natural history and studies of non-human agency. It offers a detailed case study of how humanity is shaped by the smallest of its co-inhabitants of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":54725219156241,"sku":"NGR9781032667638","price":231.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/songsters-book-ducan-frost-9781032667638","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}