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The circus is a source of nostalgia for Americans of all ages, either from memories of attending P. T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth," or through the colorful evocations in many movies, television programs, and books. Interest in the circus phenomenon is unflagging, yet there have been few publications that look closely at how the circus's European origins were refashioned for an American audience. Lavishly illustrated and carefully researched, this volume explores how American culture, values, demography, and business practices altered the fundamental nature of the European circus, and how, by the end of the 19th century, they had transformed it into a distinctly American pastime.

At the peak of its cultural significance, the circus was a sophisticated combination of theater and business, and made effective use of advertising, train travel, and hyperbole. The subjects in The American Circus reflect this complexity, ranging widely from thematic explorations of circus music and elephants to more closely focused studies of objects such as circus toys, souvenirs, and performers' costumes. The book also explores the dark and even nefarious side of the circus, and its associations with marginalized dimensions of American life and culture. With contributions from leading scholars, this stylishly designed volume aims to identify the salient features of an Americanized cultural product and to analyze its appeal for American audiences.

Elephants, lions, tigers and leopards evoked fascination and awe, fear and excitement in the twentieth-century circus. Wild and Dangerous Performances: Animals, Emotions, Circus explores what happened when big cats roared on cue and elephants danced together. Acts in live circus and cinema reveal how humans anthropomorphize animals with their emotions. Trained animals became caught up in scientific precepts from Darwin on emotions and in opposition to animal performance. This history considers acts by Carl Hagenbeck, Frank Bostock, Alfred Court, Clyde Beatty and others in leading international circuses. Descriptions of animal performers were vivid and moving, but completely contradictory. Animals embody a phenomenology of transacted emotions and feelings in culture, recently exemplified by Christian, the lion. Contributing to the growing scholarship in animal studies, this fascinating study has much to offer to anyone interested in circus animal performance, performance history, animal emotions and animal rights and ethics. [editor summary]

Cet ouvrage n'est pas une histoire du dressage, d'autres l'ont déjà fort bien écrite et il n'y a pas lieu d'y adjoindre an nouveau chapitre. Ce n'est pas non plus une histoire des dompteurs ou des dresseurs où seraient enfin dévoilés les secrets de ceux qui vivent auprès des fauves. Ce texte tente plutôt de démêler un écheveau complexe de sensations et de relations, brouillées ou limpides selon les cas et les époques, et de comprendre un peu mieux les motivations du dompteur et du public. Au filtre du temps et des rencontres, nourri d'expériences et d'échanges avec plusieurs dresseurs et le souvenir de quelques autres, loin d'une quelconque apologie, ce livre, riche d'illustrations inédites, mêle repères et références, entrouvre quelques portes, et ambitionne finalement de faire partager, sans la justifier, une fascination troublante pour l'un des plus vieux rapports de force de l'histoire de l'humanité, ce lien ambigu qui entrave l'homme et la bête. [4e de couv.]