{"product_id":"parlor-ponds-judith-hamera-9780472051663","title":"Parlor Ponds: The Cultural Work of the American Home Aquarium, 1850-1970","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eParlor Ponds: The Cultural Work of the American Home Aquarium, 1850-1970 \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the myriad cultural meanings of the American home aquarium during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and argues that the home aquarium provided its enthusiasts with a potent tool for managing the challenges of historical change, from urbanization to globalization. The tank could be a window to an alien world, a theater for domestic melodrama, or a vehicle in a fantastical undersea journey. Its residents were seen as inscrutable and wholly disposable \"its,\" as deeply loved and charismatic individuals, and as alter egos by aquarists themselves. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eParlor Ponds \u003c\/i\u003efills a gap in the growing field of animal studies by showing that the tank is an emblematic product of modernity, one using elements of exploration, technology, science, and a commitment to rigorous observation to contain anxieties spawned by industrialization, urbanization, changing gender roles, and imperial entanglements. Judith Hamera engages advertisements, images, memoirs, public aquarium programs, and enthusiast publications to show how the history of the aquarium illuminates complex cultural attitudes toward nature and domestication, science and religion, gender and alterity, and national conquest and environmental stewardship with an emphasis on the ways it illuminates American public discourse on colonial and postcolonial expansion. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Judith Hamera\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0472051660\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780472051663\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Michigan Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/16\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.90d","brand":"Judith Hamera","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48437900542207,"sku":"9780472051663","price":36.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a1287b95-92ad-4017-933f-f0c220a2a1ef.jpg?v=1777167538","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/parlor-ponds-judith-hamera-9780472051663","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}