... vivid and often wrenching ... not a conventional biography, intriguing as its central figure is. The book is above all a compassionate, highly readable account of the 19th-century plight of animals, especially urban animals — and of those who tried to come to their rescue.
A Traitor to His Species is chock-full of...details, and yet the narrative’s pace never slackens. Expansive yet carefully documented, Mr. Freeberg’s book is less the biography of a man than of a noble effort that eventually spanned the nation ... In the end, A Traitor to His Species isn’t primarily about animals or their rights. Instead, as articulated in Mr. Freeberg’s clear-eyed conclusion, this is a book about us, about the searing truth that how we choose to treat animals reveals what kinds of humans we are.
... Freeberg offers a full, brightly written, anecdote-filled account of the career of Henry Bergh ... Freeberg offers absorbing stories of Bergh’s conflicts with notables of the day ... Highly readable.
... [a] vivid, often gruesome account ... Most readers will quail at the casual cruelty that Freeberg describes and that Victorians took for granted ... A successful effort to make a splendid American crusader better known.
...an evocative biography ... Freeberg marshals a wealth of detail in tracking Bergh’s campaigns and paints a vivid picture of Gilded Age America. Animal lovers and history buffs will savor this immersive account.
