"A little gem. ... Brunner's book is full of information about the relationship between bears and humans, and is delightfully illustrated with period engravings."
The New York Times
"In stories told everywhere from Siberia and Lapland to the plains of the American West and the forests of Vietnam, people came from bears, or bears came from people, or people and bears intermarried and made furry babies. “What other animal occupies as much space in the human imagination as the bear?” Bernd Brunner asked in his brisk book "Bears: A Brief History." Into the Middle Ages, European noblemen claimed to be descended from bears. “In some tales,” Brunner reports mysteriously, “humans became bears as a result of unfortunate tree-climbing episodes."
Jill Lepore, The New Yorker
"This droll, heavily illustrated history of the relationship between humans and bears brims with curious facts and anecdotes. ... Brunner adroitly details the ways bears have been demonized, revered, and anthropomorphized by cultures that see them in contradictory terms - both lazy and fierce, wily and dim-witted-and tells the sad stories of humanity's attempts to domesticate and showcase these majestic, primarily reclusive beings."
The New Yorker
"Packed with intriguing facts and miscellany. ... Brunner has gone a long way to demystify the iconic creature."
The Washington Post Book World
"Dense with information that even arctophiles may have missed... Growwwl."
The Guardian
"A fascinating and comprehensive biography. All species should have such an eloquent advocate."
The Toronto Star
USA/UK: Yale University Press
Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
Italy: Bollati Boringhieri
China: Shanghai Sanhui Culture and Press
Taiwan: Rive Gauche
Estonia: Olion
Turkey: E Yayinlari
South Korea: Thinking Tree Publishing
Japan: Hakusui-sha