Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon

The controversial story of one infamous breed of dog--a New York Times Bestseller (Animals list).

When Bronwen Dickey brought her new dog home, she saw no traces of the infamous viciousness in her affectionate pit bull. Which made her wonder: How had the breed--beloved by Teddy Roosevelt and Helen Keller--come to be known as a brutal fighter? Dickey's search for answers takes her from nineteenth-century New York dogfighting pits to early twentieth-century movie sets, from the battlefields of Gettysburg to struggling urban neighborhoods. In this illuminating story of how a popular breed became demonized--and what role humans have played in the transformation--Dickey offers us an insightful view of Americans' relationship with their dogs.

Author: Bronwen Dickey
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 04/04/2017
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780345803115
ISBN10: 0345803116
BISAC Categories:
- Pets | Dogs | Breeds
- Social Science | Popular Culture
- Science | Life Sciences | Zoology | Mammals

About the Author
BRONWEN DICKEY is an essayist and journalist who writes regularly for the Oxford American. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Slate, The Best American Travel Writing 2009, Newsweek, and Outside, among other publications. In 2009 she received a first-place Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award and a MacDowell Colony residency grant. She lives in North Carolina.