{"product_id":"parrot-culture-our-2500-year-long-fascination-with-the-worlds-most-talkative-bird-paperback-softback-9780812221046","title":"Parrot Culture; Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird (Paperback \/ softback) 9780812221046","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eParrot Culture\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eOur 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eBruce Thomas Boehrer (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812221046\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 9 March 2010\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e224 pages, 49 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.322 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"As both a fiction writer and a lover of parrots, I was delighted and enlightened by \u003ci\u003eParrot Culture\u003c\/i\u003e. This is an enchanting book.\"-Robert Olen Butler, author of \u003ci\u003eA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"The book is written by that most rare and wonderful of specimens-an academic whose obsession with parrots is disciplined by his knowledge and love of literature.\"-\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Boehrer has a knowledge base that spans science, art, and literature, and the writing is delightful. The book is fascinating.\"-Joanna Burger, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Parrot Who Owns Me\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Engrossing. . . . Bruce Thomas Boehrer concentrates his well-stocked mind on what over the centuries we humans have done to, and done with, parrots.\"-\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In tracing the relationship between human and parrot, Boehrer, an English professor and parrot fancier, examines the influence of psittacines on all levels of society. Parrots have always been popular as pets, and interwoven with the discussion of parrots as symbols is Boehrer's analysis of our obsession with owning parrots, which has directly led to their decline. This amalgam of art, natural history, and literature will find a ready audience among the legions of bird aficionados.\"-\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Smart, lively and informative. . . . Boehrer's abiding love for these birds is sure to win some converts. . . This is an enjoyable, eloquent paean to all things psittacine.\"-\u003ci\u003eWashington Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eParrot Culture\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates the beauty, intelligence, and personally of these birds.\"-\u003ci\u003eBirdTimes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"An endlessly surprising account.\"-\u003ci\u003eForeWord\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter completing his conquest of the Persian empire, Alexander the Great maneuvered his army across the Hindu Kush and into India. During his two years there, he traveled from dry frigid mountains to humid tropical lowlands and then back across one of the most punishing deserts on the planet. He fought a series of desperate battles against strange foes mounted on war-elephants, suffering wounds that nearly killed him. And when he eventually turned homeward, he brought with him specimens of a rare, magical species, a bird that could speak with a human voice.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIntroduced to Europe by Alexander, parrots were quickly embraced by Western culture as exotic and astonishing, full of marvelous powers, and close to the gods. Over the centuries they would become objects of veneration or figures of folly, creatures prized for their wit-or their place on the dinner table. Ultimately, they would become emblematic of the West's interaction with the world at large. Identifying a deeply rooted obsession with these beautiful and loquacious birds, Bruce Thomas Boehrer provides the first account of parrots and their impact on the Western world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eParrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird\u003c\/i\u003e traces the unusual history of parrots from their introduction in the Graeco-Roman world as items of oriental luxury, through the great age of New World exploration, to the contemporary ecological crisis of globalism. Boehrer identifies the poignant irony in the way parrots became ubiquitous as symbols and mascots, while suffering near extinction at the hands of those who desired them. Exploring their presence and meanings in the art, literature, and history of Western civilization, \u003ci\u003eParrot Culture\u003c\/i\u003e also celebrates the beauty, intelligence, and personality of these birds, whose fate will say as much about us and the world we have created as it will about them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrologue: Circa 40 Million B.C.\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1: Invasion of the Parrots \u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2: Mysteries and Marvels\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3: Return of the Parrots \u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4: Unhappy Bird!\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5: Dead Parrot Sketch\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6: Extinction and Beyond\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52702518378776,"sku":"9780812221046","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/parrot-culture-our-2500-year-long-fascination-with-the-worlds-most-talkative-bird-paperback-softback-9780812221046","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}