Polar Bear

Margery Fee is Emerita Professor of English at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her most recent book is Literary Land Claims: The 'Indian Land Question' from Pontiac’s War to Attawapiskat (2015).

Outside of the Arctic, humans have rarely understood polar bears. But we have repeatedly projected our own ever-shifting values onto them. This is one of the messages driven home by Margery Fee’s Polar Bear, a historical, cultural and biological meditation on a majestic animal whose fate is entwined with humanity’s . . . engaging and deeply philosophical discussion of an animal she sees as immeasurably valuable but widely misunderstood . . . richly illustrated with archival and modern day images, packed with scientific and historic facts, and driven by Fee’s forceful views, which skirt the mainstream and offer a different perspective. - Anchorage Daily NewsFee succeeds in her goal of explaining how the polar bear became the icon of climate change. This book is aimed at a popular audience and provides a good introduction to polar bears. Fee writes with a distinctive voice and is by turns erudite, eloquent, opinionated, evenhanded, digressive, perceptive, idiosyncratic, informative, and humorous. Polar Bear is like a small-sized coffee-table book, beautifully produced on glossy paper and lavishly illustrated - Isis JournalMargery Fee’s Polar Bear is a compelling story about the interface between polar bears and people . . . The appearance and feel of the book, and its captivating story‐telling style captured my attention. I enjoyed reading it, and all readers will find new information and have their thoughts provoked by the many threads presented. - Bulletin of the Ecological Society of AmericaFee makes a solid contribution to the Animal series, presenting polar bears through stemmatics, ethology, conservation concerns, art and culture, ecotourism, zoos, circuses, and other forms of conspicuous display - Lection