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The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery: Revised and Expanded Edition by Marjorie Spiegel
11corvus11's review
5.0
This book is excellent. What I really enjoyed about it was how the entire thing is set up from the beginning to avoid the kind of tokenism often seen amongst single issue vegans to use a human rights issue to further veganism (and then ignoring that issue at all other times or pretending it has been solved). It takes both oppressions into account to show how they further one another. The forward by Alice Walker is also very good.
Edit: I wanted to update this review because it just got a thumbs up from someone. I wrote this review five years ago and I've learned a lot since then. I believe I read this book 10 years before that so there was a lot that I didn't remember. And what I've learned since then I feel like this stellar review I gave it might be a bit clouded by my own ignorance at times. I still think this is an important book and I still think there's a lot that can be gained from it. But the time it was written and now a lot has evolved and changed. And I think if you're looking for something that explores connections between the exploitation of black people in the exploitation of non-human animals, there are better things out there that are written by black women and men rather than a white woman. I would have to reread this book to be able to pick and choose what can be taken from it and I do think the author came at it from a place of really not wanting to say that the two things are the same. But I also see how this book could be used by someone in bad faith to say just that. Maybe I should have at least skimmed it before editing this review but I'm so behind on reading and I've got a lot going on so I'm just going to do this instead and try to be at least mildly responsible. If anyone does reread the book in 2021 or later I'd be interested in their thoughts now because I think most people who I know who've read it all read it a long time ago.
Edit: I wanted to update this review because it just got a thumbs up from someone. I wrote this review five years ago and I've learned a lot since then. I believe I read this book 10 years before that so there was a lot that I didn't remember. And what I've learned since then I feel like this stellar review I gave it might be a bit clouded by my own ignorance at times. I still think this is an important book and I still think there's a lot that can be gained from it. But the time it was written and now a lot has evolved and changed. And I think if you're looking for something that explores connections between the exploitation of black people in the exploitation of non-human animals, there are better things out there that are written by black women and men rather than a white woman. I would have to reread this book to be able to pick and choose what can be taken from it and I do think the author came at it from a place of really not wanting to say that the two things are the same. But I also see how this book could be used by someone in bad faith to say just that. Maybe I should have at least skimmed it before editing this review but I'm so behind on reading and I've got a lot going on so I'm just going to do this instead and try to be at least mildly responsible. If anyone does reread the book in 2021 or later I'd be interested in their thoughts now because I think most people who I know who've read it all read it a long time ago.
claire_melanie's review
4.0
Thought provoking and convincing look at similarities in discourses around race and species that justify and perpetuate exploitation and oppression. Compelling reading.
anicea's review
3.0
Comparing human and animal slavery as Spiegel does in The Dreaded Comparison is an extremely controversial position to take. I don't know whether my uncomfort with the topic is due to societal expectations of what's "politically correct" or the fact that I necessarily disagree with Speigel's argument. Either way, this book is remarkably thought-provoking, and I would encourage others to read it. How humans treat non-human animals is abhorrent.
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