Peta-

Abstract: In this compelling and useful study, Peta Tait illuminates the complex nexus of animals, emotions, and circus. The “wild and dangerous performances” of her title refer to circus acts of exotic, as opposed to domestic, animals, chiefly big cats and elephants, which headlined tours of major companies in Europe and North America from the late nineteenth century through the peak decades of the 1920s to the ’60s. Drawing on animal-trainer and circusowner memoirs, newspaper articles, reviews, photos, fiction and films, circus programs, magazines, and ads, Tait explores not only the awe, fear, and excitement that these acts aroused in audiences, but also the emotions imputed to the animals, as well as those felt and projected by their trainers and mobilized for publicity and various forms of social and political activism.

Abstract: On that day, however, I did not feel at all like reading; only on the next did I begin. As usual, I skimmed through the book, skipping the pages which did not catch my attention, before I settled down to a more careful reading. From this superficial glance I was able to see that Bung Karno had not told the entire truth. He had put forward as facts things he had only made up, and he had exaggerated in places. Indeed, he had gone so far as to distort facts, one of which deeply disturbed me.