Andrea L. Smalley

After the Civil War in America, a new type of hunting came to be. “Market Gunning” involved shooting hundreds and sometimes thousands of wildfowl at a time and shipping their bodies to the East for people to consume. They shot at all seasons, there was no bag limit, and no regulations about the types of guns used. This plundering of our wildlife ended up spurring the modern conservation movement. On this episode of Inquiry, we talk with ANDREA L. SMALLEY, professor emerita of history at Northern Illinois University. Her new book, written with Henry M. Reeves,  is THE MARKET IN BIRDS: COMMERCIAL HUNTING, CONSERVATION, AND THE ORIGINS OF WILDLIFE CONSUMERISM 1850-1920.