A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008 A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire explores the cultural position of animals in the period from 1800 to 1920. This was a time of extraordinary social, political and economic change as the Western world rapidly industrialized and modernized. The Enlightenment had attempted to define the human self; the Age of Empire pulled animals and humans further apart. A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.