Description
This book provides a challenging look at current feminist criticism as well as ecocriticism and the burgeoning literature of the environment. Barney Nelson is widely considered one of the most original and innovative scholars at work in the field today. She offers unique views of the domestic qualities of many wild animals as well as the wildness in domesticated species often witnessed by those who live close to the land, as she and her family have for generations.

Through brilliant readings of Mary Austin, John Muir, and Edward Abbey, Nelson explores pernicious dichotomies and shakes up our thinking about animals and the American West.

Reviews
"In The Wild and the Domestic, Barney Nelson brings her sane and balanced vision to bear on some of the most heated issues of our time. Her informed and loving voice for our responsible use of land, our responsibility for other species, and responsible living provides a vital and seldom-articulated perspective on ranching and the rancher’s stewardship."
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of Jackalope Dreams

"Barney Nelson has written a stunning book in The Wild and the Domestic, desperately needed as we plan the future of the Real West, the one more and more of us live in these days. This woman has ridden and written over some of the slickest rock in the nation and found a trail for others to follow: it is ‘time someone stuck up for the cows,’ as she says, and no one has done it better than Barney Nelson, who deserves to be ranked with the best writers of the century.”
—Linda Hasselstrom, author of No Place Like Home

Contents
Contents
Prologue: The Rural Storyteller
Introduction: Another Troublesome Dichotomy
Chapter 1: Walking Ancient Domestic Trails
Chapter 2: Gendering the Wild and the Domestic
Chapter 3: "My First Daughter was an Antelope"
Chapter 4: Hoofed Locusts or Wild Eco-Sheep?
Chapter 5:The Indigenous Desert Cow
Chapter 6: "That One-Eyed Hereford Muley"
Conclusion: Collapsing the Wild/Domestic Dichotomy
Notes
Works Cited
Acknowledgments
Index