Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation
by Sunaura Taylor
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Description
A beautifully written, deeply provocative inquiry into the intersection of animal and disability liberation--and the debut of an important new social critic. How much of what we understand of ourselves as "human" depends on our physical and mental abilities--how we move (or cannot move) in and interact with the world? And how much does our definition of "human" depend on its difference from "animal"? Drawing on her own experiences as a disabled person, a disability activist, and an animal show more advocate, author Sunaura Taylor persuades us to think deeply, and sometimes uncomfortably, about what divides the human from the animal, the disabled from the nondisabled--and what it might mean to break down those divisions, to claim the animal and the vulnerable in ourselves, in a process she calls "cripping animal ethics." Beasts of Burden suggests that issues of disability and animal justice--which have heretofore primarily been presented in opposition--are in fact deeply entangled. Fusing philosophy, memoir, science, and the radical truths these disciplines can bring--whether about factory farming, disability oppression, or our assumptions of human superiority over animals--Taylor draws attention to new worlds of experience and empathy that can open up important avenues of solidarity across species and ability. Beasts of Burden is a wonderfully engaging and elegantly written work, both philosophical and personal, by a brilliant new voice. show lessTags
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Author Information
3 Works 137 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Epigraph
- They are all beasts of burden, in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts.
—Henry David Thoreau - Dedication
- To David, Leonora, and Bailey, three of my favorite animals.
And to Jeremy Ayers, a friend to all creatures.
In loving memory. - First words
- If there is one thing that has led me to my current thinking about animals and disability, it is a memory.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Awkwardly and imperfectly, we care for each other.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science & Nature
- DDC/MDS
- 179.3 — Philosophy and Psychology Ethics Other ethical norms Treatment of animals
- LCC
- HV4708 .T395 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Protection, assistance and relief Protection of animals. Animal rights. Animal
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 100
- Popularity
- 321,301
- Rating
- (4.06)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
