Making History
This type of document is from the same time period as the event which the historian is studying.
What is a primary source?
These diseases can be passed between humans and animals.
What are zoonoses?
Cows, horses, dogs, and sheep are common examples of this type of animal, who are selectively bred in captivity for the use of humans.
What are domesticated animals?
Founded in 1866 by Henry Bergh, this organization sought to protect animals (particularly horses) from harsh treatment by their owners.
What is the ASPCA?
Popularized during the Enlightenment, this term describes animals as unthinking beings without souls.
What is a "living machine"?
This term encompasses books, articles, newspapers, and any other document which interprets historical events after they took place.
What is a secondary source?
This term is used to describe a disease which rapidly spreads between animals and infects a large number.
What is an epizootic?
This term describes animals who live in the wild, but are descended from domesticated ancestors.
What are feral animals?
Often overloaded by owners looking to increase profits at the expense of their animals' health, these trolly-like transports were often the target of legislation which restricted the number of passengers permitted aboard at once.
What are horsecars?
Algonquian peoples in the Northeast used this term to describe the spiritual life force which they believed to be present in all beings - animals and humans alike.
What is Manitou?
Through this process, historians divide the past into separate (though not always distinct) eras.
What is periodization?
Not widely accepted until the mid-19th century, this hypothesis proposed that microorganisms are the main causes of disease.
What is germ theory?
Though they are not domesticated and do not breed in captivity, this type of animal has been trained to be comfortable around humans.
What are tame animals?
Created by Richard Nixon in 1970, this federal agency is tasked with curbing pollution, excessive resource consumption, and animal habitat devastation...among many other things.
What is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
Released in 1979, this song by Bob Dylan reflects an anthropocentric view of animal history.
What is "Man Gave Names to All the Animals"?
What is the Anthropocene?
Closely related to measles and canine distemper, this disease was responsible for multiple epizootics throughout Europe.
What is Rinderpest?
The fourth and final stage in Richard Bulliet's description of human-animal relations, this term refers to a period in which humans have little contact with animals, and begin to feel guilty or shameful about their farming practices.
A predecessor of the USDA, this federal agency was created primarily to stop the sale of meat sourced from diseased animals, and to stop the large-scale spread of animal diseases.
What is the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI)?
This term describes the role that domesticated animals like pigs and cows played in the process of European colonization.
What are "creatures of empire"?
When analyzing a source, historians should do this in order to critically engage the author's arguments, and gain insight into the perspectives of people (or animals) who do not have a voice in that document.
What is "reading against the grain"?
This epizootic spread throughout North America in the late 19th century, and was partially responsible for a devastating fire in Boston.
What is the 1872 Horse Flue?
As Coleman notes, this type of aggressive, posturing behavior can be observed in both humans and wolves.
What are dominance signals?
Signed into law by President Nixon in 1971, this legislation protected declining feral horse and donkey populations in the American West.
What is the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act?
In Vicious, Coleman uses this term to describe European colonists who were reluctant to leave their farms and pursue local fauna over long distances.