The Fair Chase

The Epic Story of Hunting in America

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By Philip Dray

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$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 1, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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.
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On Sale
May 1, 2018
Page Count
416 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9781541616738

Philip Dray

About the Author

Philip Dray is a historian who has written or coauthored several books on American history and culture, including At the Hands of Persons Unknown, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Dray lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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