Love, War and Circuses: The age-old relationship between elephants and humans by Eric Scigliano, Houghton Mifflin, $24, ISBN 0618015833 Review by Adrian Barnett
THERE’S something about elephants that appeals to the human psyche. Even imperial Rome’s hardened games-watchers objected to the killing of elephants in their gladiatorial arenas. Today’s African and Asian duo are last of a long and diverse line: 20 million years in the making, it has included 160 separate species, ranging from the ultra-odd and nearly unpronounceable Stegatetrabeladon to Malta’s dwarf elephant, just a metre tall.
Love, War and Circuses is written in a warm, smooth and…
