A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS PLACING THE HUMAN-WOLF RELATIONSHIP IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE International in range and chronological in organisation, this volume aims to grasp the maincurrents of thought about interactions with the wolf in modern history. It focuses on perceptions, interactions and dependencies, and includes cultural and social analyses as well as biological aspects.

Wolves have been feared and admired, hunted and cared for. At the same historical moment, different cultural and social groups have upheld widely diverging ideas about the wolf. Fundamental dichotomies in modern history, between nature and culture, wilderness and civilisation and danger and security, have been portrayed in terms of wolf-human relationships. The wolf has been part of aesthetic, economic, political, psychological and cultural reasoning albeit it is nowadays mainly addressed as an object of wildlife management. There has been a major shift in perception from dangerous predator to endangered species, but the big bad fairytale wolf remains a cultural icon. This volume roots study of human-wolf relationships coherently within the disciplines of environmental and animal history for the first time.

Patrick Masius is a Post-doc at Goettingen University. His research focuses on natural hazards and dangerous animals. In 2010, he received his Ph.D. at Goettingen University with a historical study on politics of natural disasters in the German Empire. Previously, he studied Geography and Social Anthropology at the Universities of Bayreuth and Sussex. Jana Sprenger is a Post-doc at Goettingen University, Germany. She researches the persecution and extirpation of wolves in early modern and modern Germany. In 2011, she received her Ph.D. at Goettingen University with a study about the perception, damage and control of insect pests in forestry and agriculture in Prussian Brandenburg. Previously, she studied Biology, focusing on biodiversity, at Kassel University.