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Humankind's relationship with the wolf is based on a spectrum of responses running from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's classic, careful study won praise from a wide range of reviewers and went on to improve the way books about wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men reveals the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing on an astonishing array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as considerable personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the necessity of the wolf's preservation and envelops the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling picture of the wolf both as real animal and as imagined by man. A scientist might perceive the wolf as defined by research data, while an Eskimo hunter sees a family provider much like himself. For many Native Americans the wolf is also a spiritual symbol, a respected animal that can make both the individual and the community stronger. With irresistible charm and elegance, Of Wolves and Men celebrates scientific fieldwork, dispels folklore that has enabled the Western mind to demonize wolves, explains myths, and honors indigenous traditions, allowing us to further understand how this incredible animal has come to live so strongly in the human heart.

Average Customer Rating:

wolf books	Customer Rating:
This book is pritty good but its not one of the best wolf books out there. It has alot of pictures and some useful information but it can have a whole lot more like other wolf books that i have read, but all in all if you are looking to learn about them this book does teach you information about them.

Each blind person "sees" the elephant differently.

Customer Rating:

There are lots of books out there, from erudite texts to the lowly mass media publications (the ones I usually read at my friendly neighborhood Borders). What is unique about each is what the author brings to the subject. I only ask that when they interpret an observation they let you know. Unlike "Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves" where the author actually states that he, "never lets facts get in the way of the truth" Lopez has tried to stick to the facts to the best of his abilities, even to asking the help of David Mech, arguably the world's leading expert on the Wolf. Of notable interest is Lopez's accurate debunking of the "alpha" animal. This term has been perpetuated by dozens of dog "experts" who completely misunderstand pack mentality (dog or wolf) and the variable nature of alpha behavior. Lopez doesn't tell you where the term comes from (a mostly disproved 1940's study by Rudolph Schenkel who studied about 10 wolves in a 900 square foot pen and picked up by researchers in the '60s) or what was being studied (unrelated and/or orphaned wolves in captivity - NOT real wolf packs), but he does tell you that it is misleading. But then again, this is Lopez's book and not a scientific tome. As to comments about not being enough about wolves, I think it's important for us to understand how "we" see this terribly misunderstood animal. As Walt Kelly's Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." For those who want serious, studiousnessability wolf stuff, see Mech's "Wolves -Behavior, Ecology and Conservation" And finally, ff you want to save a few bucks, skip the hard-cover version and go with the paperback edition reissued in 2004 with an enlarged bibliography and a few extra words from the author. It's a worthwhile read both for learning more about the wolf and learning more about who we are. If you love animals, you'll enjoy the former and be uncomforted by the latter.

Comprehensive and compelling	Customer Rating:
Great book! Adding to current scientific information, the author goes further, into extensive discriptions of the poetry and myth by which we hold the wolf in our imaginations. I especially liked the variety of Native American interpretations of the meaning of the wolf.

Fascinating, haunting...	Customer Rating:
What a fascinating read and what a majestic animal! I was saddened to read about how the Wolf was systematically killed in many parts of the US in decades gone by. Its soothing to know that biologists are working actively to preserve the remaining wolf populations. This book will bring you a fresh perspective of our environment.

I wish I could give it all the stars in the sky...

Customer Rating:

This book should be required reading for everyone. Lopez, a superior author in his own right, created THE classic book on wolf behavior and on the relationship between wolves and humans from ancient to modern times. The first few chapters deal with wolf biology and behavior, and dispel many of the myths--including the idea that nobody has ever been attacked by a healthy wolf in North America (nobody, apparently, thought to check with American Indian experience in history). It's a very, very thorough exploration of the wolf as a mammal, as an animal. Then Lopez goes into the tangled thornbush of wolf mythology and folklore, and how it affected the way humans slaughtered wolves (or revered them), and how the two fed off of eachother and built up the human (mis)conception of the wolf that has only recently been shattered. There's a lot of heartbreaking information about wolf hunting, and just how devastated the wolf population has been. Reduced to a fraction of their former range, it's amazing that wolves even still exist. This book is a must-read, not only for wolf lovers, but for everyone to understand why we have so abused the natural world. For many people, the wolf IS the wild, and how we treat the wolf mirrors how we treat the wild.