Paper Tiger — Reviews

“This book is a remarkable achievement. Freeman tells the story of the thylacine in an original and deeply affecting way. We learn about the animals … and the ravaging impact that human ideas had upon them. Freeman writes thoughtfully, carefully, and with force, and the book is a very good read”

Nigel Rothfels, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, author of Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo.

“In the sad history of human-made extinctions in Australia, few surpass that of the thylacine. Paper Tiger traces the genealogy of each thylacine image with painstaking care. The result is a compelling history of that species, of extinction and of natural history illustrations. This book is a fine contribution to, and crucial reference for, cultural history, animal studies and the history of the book. Putting to one side for the moment recent reported sightings of thylacines, all that is now left to us of these animals are tainted images and pickled bodies. Carol Freeman has enriched both our understanding of what we have lost, and how this was accomplished”. Island Magazine

Helen MacDonald, Senior Fellow at The Australian Centre in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne and author of Human Remains: Dissection and its Histories, winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize (History). In Island.

“This book provides a scholarly yet very readable account of a very great loss, the extinction of the Thylacine … and has what it takes to become a classic text. Freeman’s study makes a valuable and timely contribution to the question of how we are going to come to terms with our role in the burgeoning global problem of mass species extinctions”

Linda Williams, Associate Professor in Art, Environment and Cultural Studies at RMIT University Melbourne. In Philosophy, Activism, Nature.

“As an animal lover, I found Paper Tiger one of the saddest books I’ve read. I had mistakenly thought that the Thylacine’s extinction was a tragic accident, when in fact it was a malicious thing, a result of deliberate efforts bent on its extermination. I commend Carol Freeman for making this a readable book when many scholarly works in Human-Animal Studies are not. Her language is straightforward and unpretentious. By avoiding the rhetoric of advocacy she constructs a more powerful indictment against the forces that contributed to this magnificent animal’s demise.”

Jonathan Balcombe, Author of Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals and The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure. In Psychology Today.