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BELOVED BEASTS is an excellent new book about the history of modern wildlife conservation. This is the book I wish I had read years ago! If you want to learn about the relationships between conservation biology, environmentalism, the animal rights movement, hunting, and other related disciplines, this is the book for you. And what about connections to women’s suffrage, Indigenous rights, and sustainable development? Or colonialism, racism, and eugenics? All that is here, too.

Nijhuis packs a lot in this book, so some topics get more attention than others, but she still manages to treat them with considerable nuance. If you know some conservation history there will be a lot of familiar characters and topics here, but it’s worthwhile reading anyway to get a better understanding of how they are all woven together. There is a focus on terrestrial wildlife and on North American wildlife management, but there are discussions of international conservation movements and some good examples from Africa as well.

What I think may be the most valuable part of this book is where Nijhuis considers well-known frameworks and concepts in conservation—from the Tragedy of the Commons to trophy hunting, protected areas, and endangered species management—and asks whether they are useful to carry forward into the next generation of conservation. An important question, indeed.