A review by giana_vitale
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction by Michelle Nijhuis

3.0

This was informative and an interesting recap of the history of American conservation. I had expected to learn about the conservation efforts associated with specific animal species (of which there was still a bit) rather than more elaborate personal histories of America’s most influential conservationists. Highly educational nonetheless, and even changed my own perspective on some conservation topics, especially trophy hunting, “top-down” corporation style conservation, and endangered species breeding/husbandry. On the negative side, this book greatly needed some better organization. It is roughly chronological, but some chapters covered multiple conservationists and some chapters only one. Discussing multiple people in the same chapter was confusing and seemingly unnecessary. I was also confused by the flip flop back and forth between discussing animal conservation stories and conservationist personal history. I struggled especially through the middle chapters. Altogether a nice educational read, but would be vastly improved by some rearranging.