|
| When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals | 
| Authors: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Susan Mccarthy
Publisher: Delta
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.21
You Save: $15.79 (99%)
New (53) Collectible (5) from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 120956
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0385314280
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.51
UPC: 400307296869
EAN: 9780385314282
ASIN: 0385314280
Publication Date: May 2, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A review of the audiobook November 9, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Strengths:
"When Elephants Weep" is full of moving anectdotes concerning animals and the possibility of them having emotions. It is a pleasant listen and usually not "over the top" in its preachiness. It was well read by narrator David Ackroyd. The authors make a compelling, if not scientifically rigorous argument for animal emotions.
Weaknesses:
The authors are continually preaching against scientists who do not believe that animals have emotions and may even doubt that animals can even feel pain. However, they rarely point out the scientists or the studies that espouse this view. It felt like a straw man argument after a while. They also fail to cite any work that backs their claims besides convincing rhetoric.
In the end, it was a convincing, mostly entertaining book that was a lot more entertaining and pleasant than a PETA brochure, but without much more actual content than such a brochure.
 Insightful and fresh September 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most people cling to the belief that we are the only species on the planet with the capacity for thought or emotion. In our daily experiences with animals we know that this is absurd but keep it ourselves for fear of ridicule. This book challenges those musty, Old World thoughts and fears. Even if you have already developed an enlightened compassion and ethic regarding other species, "When Elephants Weep" offers a refreshing, stimulating look at the life.
 Not so great in the first place, it is now wildly outdated. February 2, 2007
2 out of 13 found this review helpful
As someone who is studies emotions and decision making, I was looking forward to reading this book. While the author offers (and repeats, and repeats) considerable anecdotal evidence for animal emotion, there is little concrete science to support the claims.
Furthermore, the field of emotion-cognition study in humans is still coming into its own and has grown exponentially since 1996. Indeed, we now understand many human emotions better than in 1996. Naturally, when comparing humans and animal emotions, these advances dramatically change our understanding and therefore draw into question many of the inferences made in the book.
Not a great book to begin with. However, a decade after its release, it is borderline useless.
Had potential, but fell short January 3, 2007
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Having been intrigued by the title alone, I was greatly looking forward to reading this book. The book, however, did not measure up to my expectations. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has written several books, so I would expect much better writing coming from a veteran author, but the book was poorly written and poorly put together.
The book's title and subtitle appears as though it will be simply explaining the emotional lives of animals. Seems like a fairly simple concept. The author takes a different-than-expected approach by spending much of the book putting humans down and elevating animals to an almost god-like stature in comparison. Case in point, one chapter is called "Unfeeling Brutes" in reference to humans. The book seems to be aimed at convincing the skeptic rather than simply explaining the emotions of animals. One who already recognizes the feelings in animals would read this and say "I already knew that!" several times.
The author is incredibly redundant, saying the same things over and over again, proposing the same ideas, and using several of the same examples multiple times, perhaps with different wording, to prove his point.
There are plenty of stories to provide examples of animals' emotions, some endearing, some disheartening. That said, the storiesgo into very little detail, which seems unusual for a book of this sort. For one trying to prove the importance of emotions in animals, you'd think the author would find it in his best interest to provide as many details as possible. Instead, examples are shortened anywhere from a sentence to a mere paragraph. They also hop around a lot with no real sense of connection except for the emotion they shared.
Each chapter focuses on particular emotions, and they are broken down into sections within those chapters. It gives the *appearance* of organization in the book, but doesn't follow suit. For example, one chapter focuses on shame, blushing, and hidden secrets. Each part is broken into a different section within the chapter, starting with blushing. While reading about shame (which came next), the author took a sharp turn by ending the section by discussing blushing again, having not made any prior mention of it in this "shame" section. It was very jarring, and didn't flow at all. Such is the consistency of the entire book. Some sections are entirely useless in the sense that hardly any information or evidence is given, except to ultimately say "we don't know" and telling a story or two that proves absolutely nothing. The section on religious impulse is a perfect example of this.
The end notes are also confusing. Rather than puting citations within the book, you simply have to assume that any story the author is telling will have addition bibliographic information in the end notes. You find them by referencing the page number in the end notes, and lotcating the first line of the story next to the page number. This, however, seems to be more the fault of the publisher than the author, though the author can't seem to make up his mind if he will reference a work within the chapters or leave it for the end notes as he does both.
I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, particularly his intent on proving the "equality" of man and beast (though he fights for this equality throughout the book, he tries to almost cover it up by saying that we're simply "distinct" from one another). It IS wonderful to see a piece of work out there where the title alone may get people to open their eyes and see that animals can and do feel. The book might have been more widely received, however, had the author taken some time to clean it up a bit and spend more time focusing on the animals and less time on the humans he argues about so much. The author is clearly passionate about this subject, judging by the other titles he has and by this book. I am hoping that he will work on his skills as an author so that his next book on the subject will be much more refined. He has a lot to offer.
 Looking for animal anecdotes? October 31, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
First off, I am an animal lover. I've had pets most of my life so this book is very much like preaching to the choir. It would be hard for me to believe that my pets, and animals in general, do not have emotions. I thought this book would be black & white concerning that issue but it is very fair to the opinion that animals do not have emotions. The title suggestions that the opinion of this author is animals are emotional however she offers several stories and possibilities to keep the book balanced. I learned quite a lot from this book. It leans towards "animals are emotional" but it's not as black & white as I thought which made the book very interesting
I got this book because I wanted to read lots of stories of animals and their emotions but I didn't exactly get that. The first couple of chapters are void of emotional animal stories and once the book finally does start with the stories, they are lacking details. I felt as though the author wanted to get as much in as possible. Quantity over quality.
I'm still giving this book a good rating because I did have a great time reading it.
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
