Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 As much about men as wolves October 24, 2007
This is a truly absorbing book written in a beautiful style and with so much detail about all aspect of wolves - their history, their place in nature, their day-to-day habits and behaviour as a family, their relationship with the humans in their territory, especially with Native American society. There are also some interesting anecdotes, and facts and figures about the position of the wolf nowadays - but I found it was also an excellent portrayal about the dark and weak side of man.
Men seem incapable of overcoming the desire to kill, even wipe out, anything presenting a threat, both spiritual and physical. The cat, the tiger, even certain ethnic races. Barry Lopez relates how, in the last two centuries the wolf has been persecuted in a most vicious manner. Some of the descriptions in this book of the atrocities of man aren't easy to read and you end up asking yourself many questions about human nature.
I agree with a previous reviewer that everyone should read this book, there is so much to be learned from it about acceptance and tolerance of living creatures.
A beautiful book May 23, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is just the most incredible book. it has taught me so much, not just about wolves, but about the ignorance of Western minds and how closed we are to our world. So much of it is so obvious that i found myself thinking "my God, Why didn't i see that?"
This man is truly an enlightened individual. This book is a touching account of the wolf, the wolf's relationship with man, and how wrong the white man was in his brutal (and mostly unprovoked) extermination of these amazing creatures in their natural habitat. I personally feel that everyone should read this book, if only to open their eyes to how much they don't know.
Two very different views of the wolf! October 17, 2004
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
This is an amazing book. It really brings home the appalling way we humans have treated this magnificent being throughout history. Lopez provides an insight into the minds of those that truly believed killing these animals was what God wanted, and the cruelty wolves have suffered at out hands.Adversely, this book also tells of those people who revere the wolf above any other beast. It shows the alternative perspective, and really accentuates the traits that make a wolf such a wonderful creature. Definitely a book to read if you have any interest at all in the wolf!
myths and legends June 3, 2003
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
I first found this book at a local library, and after reading it I proceeded to buy it.
If you have even a passing interest in wolves, this is the book for you. It details the wolfs behaviour and biology in the first chapter, and goes on to describe the wolf through the eyes of the North American indigenous peoples, the american colonists, and the medieval mind. A fantastically well written account. I thought I knew wolves before I read this book, now I realise I still have a lot to learn.
A beautiful, if at times unbearably sad account of wolves. August 12, 1999
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
For all those people out there who would love to hear the cry of a wild wolve, this is the story of how this priviledge was almost destroyed forever, and what we need to know to make sure it never is. Barry Lopez is a brave man to tell this tale.
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