This lively history "adds a new dimension to our understanding of 18th-century France" by exploring the Parisian fashion of importing exotic animals ( American Historical Review).In 1775, a visitor to Laurent Spinacuta's Grande Ménagerie at the annual winter fair in Paris would have seen two tigers, several kinds of monkeys, an armadillo, an ocelot, and a condor—in all, forty-two live animals. In the streets of the city, one could observe performing elepha...

In 1775, a visitor to Laurent Spinacuta's Grande Ménagerie at the annual winter fair in Paris would have seen two tigers, several kinds of monkeys, an armadillo, an ocelot, and a condor—in all, forty-two live animals. In Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots, Louise Robbins explains that exotic animals from around the world were common in eighteenth-century Paris. In the streets of the city, residents and visitors could observe performing elephants and a fighting polar bear. Those ...

Chronicling Louis Pasteur's rise from humble beginnings to international fame, Louis Pasteur and the Hidden World of Microbes investigates the complex life of a man who revolutionized our understanding of disease. Alongside Pasteur's pioneering work with microorganisms, his innovative use of heat to kill harmful organisms in food--a process now known as "pasteurization"--and his development of the rabies vaccine, Louise Robbins places Pasteur in the context of his risky scientific...

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy declared that the State Department was a haven for communists and traitors. Among famous targets, like Alger Hiss, the senator also named librarian Mary Jane Keeney and her husband Philip, who had been called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee to account for friendships with suspected communists, memberships in communist fronts, and authorship of articles that had been published in leftist periodicals. Conservative journalists and politicians ...

In 1950 Ruth W. Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Public Library, was summarily dismissed from her job after thirty years of exemplary service, ostensibly because she had circulated subversive materials. In truth, however, Brown was fired because she had become active in promoting racial equality and had helped form a group affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality.Louise S. Robbins tells the story of the political, social, economic, and cultural threads that be...

“Louise Fatio’s timeless tale about friendship still sparkles...” —School Library JournalThe lion at the little French zoo is a favorite of all the townspeople. Every day they stop by to feed him tidbits and say, “Bonjour, Happy Lion.” Naturally, when the lion finds his door open, he decides it would only be proper to visit all his friendly neighbors in return. But, wait—sacré bleu! Why is everyone fleeing in terror?