Bear with Me

Daniel Horowitz is Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American Studies, Emeritus at Smith College and the author of many books, most recently, American Dreams, American Nightmares: Culture and Crisis in Residential Real Estate from the Great Recession to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

• Preface. Polar Bears, Franz Boas, and Me  ixIntroduction  11. Folkloric Bears and Actual Ones: Sacred and Profane from the Bible to Contemporary Celebrities  112. The Stories of Hugh Glass: The Case of a Disappearing and Reappearing Dangerous Bear  333. Out of Hibernation and Into Children’s Literature  474. Grizzly Adams: Bears He Tamed, Those He Displayed, and Those Responsible for His Death  755. Captive Bears and Their Captors as Workers  956. Teddy Bear: Another One Quickly Disappears and Frequently Reappears  1297. Off the Poster and Out of the Zoo: Smokey Bear Goes Everywhere  1498. Out of the Closet: Bears in the Gay World  1679. Timothy Treadwell and Marian Engel: Bears, Humans, and Dangerous Eroticism  181Coda. Precarity and Polar Bears  203Acknowledgments  211Notes  215Select Bibliography  245Index

“Bear With Me is a fascinating and deeply meditative two-hundred-year cultural history of America’s popular obsession with bears. Analyzing an impressive range of folklore, live entertainments, literature, film, toys, cartoons, television, posters, social movements, and social media, the distinguished historian Daniel Horowitz forcefully places bears - representational and real—at the center of the American experience.” - Janet M. Davis, author of The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America “In this eye-popping survey of bears in American culture from the colonial period to the present, Daniel Horowitz tackles an enormous subject with a passion and a curiosity that prove contagious. Bears entered American culture in droves and under many guises. Horowitz has the audacity to embrace this complexity rather than explain it away.” - Jon T. Coleman, author of Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation "This is a detailed, entertaining, and informative breakdown of bears in popular culture. . . . Bear With Me is a revealing cultural history that puts bears in popular culture, including Yogi Bear and Paddington, into greater context." - Ryan Prado Foreword Review