The Fair Chase

An award-winning historian tells the story of hunting in America, showing how this sport has shaped our national identity. From Daniel Boone to Teddy Roosevelt, hunting is one of America's most sacred-but also most fraught-traditions. It was promoted in the 19th century as a way to reconnect "soft" urban Americans with nature and to the legacy of the country's pathfinding heroes. Fair chase, a hunting code of ethics emphasizing fairness, rugged independence, and restraint towards wildlife, emerged as a worldview and gave birth to the conservation movement. But the sport's popularity also caused class, ethnic, and racial divisions, and stirred debate about the treatment of Native Americans and the role of hunting in preparing young men for war. This sweeping and balanced book offers a definitive account of hunting in America. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of our nation's foundational myths.

Beyond Fair Chase is for anyone concerned about the future of hunting. In simple but powerful text, it describes the ethical way to hunt, from preparation to shooting to care after the shot. Never before have so many issues been linked together in an ethical context.

"Hunting in Many Lands" is a thrilling work that contains adventurous stories of late 19th-century hunters as they pursued hunting around the world. It will give the reader an idea of how different the hunting practices were back then from what it is at present.

Records of North American Whitetail Deer is the definitive history book of trophy whitetail deer in North America. This greatly expanded fourth edition features: Over 7,500 listings of whitetail deer from the Boone and Crockett Club's Records Program dating back to the late 1800s up through December 31, 2002; that's nearly double the entries from the previous edition published just seven years ago. Over 35 new state and provincial records; geographic analysis of each state in the U.S., highlighting the top trophy-producing counties; individual state and provincial lists of typical and non-typical whitetail and Coues' deer; photos of all the state, provincial, and Mexican typical and non-typical whitetail deer records; numerous field photos of trophy quality whitetail deer; reproductions of typical and non-typical whitetail deer score charts with basic scoring instructions.

Records of North American Big Game is a one-of-a-kind big game records book that lives up to its longstanding reputation as "The Book" of native North American big game trophies. The original book was published over eighty years ago. This latest edition is filled with valuable information for today's hunters, outdoorsmen, and game managers. A total of thirty-eight categories are recognized and, as a testament to the success of today's conservation efforts, five new World's Records are featured. Along with the detailed listing of over 25,000 trophies ranked by their all-time scores, this book includes current topics of interest to sportsmen. Records of North American Big Game is much more than statistics--it is a history book of big game animals, making it an exceptional resource for hunters and sportsmen.

A sequel to the best-selling Beyond Fair Chase, this book examines the unique heritage of hunting in North America and the challenges facing hunters at the close of the 20th century. In a simple but powerful style that draws on his personal experiences and his scholarly research, Jim Posewitz makes the case that hunting in North America is a remarkable expression of democracy with its roots in the American struggle for independence. (4 1/4 x 6, 128 pages, illustrations)

The Culture of Hunting in Canada covers elements of the history of hunting from the pre-colonial period until the present in all parts of Canada and features essays by practitioners and scholars of hunting and by pro- and anti-hunting lobbyists. The result crosses the boundaries between scholarship and personal reflection, and between academia and advocacy. Topics include hunting identities; conservation and its relationship to hunting; tensions between hunters and non-hunters and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal hunting groups; hunting ethics; debates over hunting practices and regulations; animal rights; and gun control. This book makes an unprecedented contribution to the study of hunting in Canada and its role in our culture.