Raising the Peaceable Kingdom: What Animals Can Teach Us about the Social Origins of Tolerance and Friendship

by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Book Overview

"I did not want to fail, because the stakes were too high. After all, I was after nothing less than the secret of human harmony." The challenge that bestselling author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson set... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345466136
• ISBN13: 9780345466136
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Next Stop Stuart Little

If you can make it all the way to the end, this book will teach you about the eight rules of tolerance, then the nine rules of play, then back to eight for the eight rules of friendship. Occasionally, I feel that Moussaieff Masson jumbled the rules slightly, or stuck one in a list (say, for "friendship") where it might more accurately be conceptualized as a rule for "play." For example, "One step at a time." Now, he has this listed as the fourth rule of friendship, and I would urge squeezing it into the list of rules of play, even if this means expanding the number of play rules to an ungainly ten. Well, I never have liked one of the existing "rules of play" anyhow--the very first, "Know when to quit." It reminds me of the famous song by Kenny Rogers about The Gambler/ So perhaps that rule could be omitted, the line about "one step at a time" given its due among the rules of play, and then the rules of friendship would be reduced. These rules are inspiring and, I feel, credence must be given to Moussaieff's own experiments using animals to prove his various points, such as rule 7 of the "Eight Rules of Tolerance," which is, "Possess nothing the other wants." But you have to admit, that's a hard one to follow in real life practice! Maybe for animals, who don't really "have" anything anyhow (except good looks and high energy). But for people, it's a different story. For what person, no matter how humble, doesn't have something that somebody else might conceivably desire? Masson himself is rather a pretentious man and some of us, both in the USA and his adopted New Zealand are united in this opinion, but most odd is his apparent lack of love for most of his pets. It seems like he just gets them to write about them, and when he's done writing about them, he lets them go to other homes. Sometimes the results are amusing, sometimes one feels he just writes to shock, for he started as a controversialist and something of the tabloid headline will always cling to his name. "Visitors were sometimes shocked," he writes, in a discussion about the socialization of rats, "to see two small heads pop out from between Leila's breasts" (by the way, Leila is a grown human) "the whiskers twitching nervously, bright little eyes alight with curiosity." Next stop, Stuart Little!

A unique perspective, valuable insights, and a fun read

It's not often that you find these three elements -- uniqueness, insights, and fun -- in the same book, but in Raising the Peaceable Kingdom, you do. Animals can teach us many things we really need to learn, and humans are just beginning to wake up to the idea, helped along by books like this one. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is a gifted and inspired writer, and I heartily recommend this book (and all of his books, frankly) to anyone -- from those who have pets/love animals and are already predisposed to enjoy the topic to those who might be a bit skeptical about what humans might learn from animals about getting along with each other. If you're not sure which side of that fence you're on, it doesn't really matter, because you'll enjoy the book either way.

Why can't we all get along?

Jeffrey Masson's latest is a delightful book and a good read for children and adults. He shows us how he and his family learned to live with cats, dogs, chickens, rats, and a rabbit. We learn how,with patience and understanding, these animals gradually come to accept each other. Why, one wonders, if cats and a bunny can get along, why can't human beings? I was most delighted by Masson's stories about the two rats, Kia and Ora. People tend to despise rats along with bats, spiders, snakes and a few other species. They are hated and feared so that most people simply refuse to learn anything about them. The hate and fear is passed down from generation to generation and few people care enough to learn more about them. Friends got me over my learned prejudices about rats in my early twenties. They worked in a research lab where they had befriended some of their subjects and brought them home as pets. They had the run of the apartment. When I stayed there, a couple of them would sleep with me on the couch. They were like small kittens and just as playful and affectionate. Many a morning I would be awakened by the tickle of whiskers, twitching noses, and tiny feet on my neck or cheek. As usual in his books, Masson's prose is like a friend talking with you, but with plenty of friendly questions and remarks that will make you think.