Book cover of Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

Book description

A beautifully written, deeply provocative inquiry into the intersection of animal and disability liberation and the debut of an important new social critic

How much of what we understand of ourselves as "human" depends on our physical and mental abilities how we move (or cannot move) in and interact with…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Beasts of Burden as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

As an artist, disabled activist, and advocate with arthrogryposis, Sunaura Taylor has experienced firsthand our cultural and economic biases that surround the disability community. She explains how just as we have placed human animals into categories of being “fit” or “unfit,” “valuable” or “unworthy,” we have applied the same logic to nonhuman animals by objectifying them and trying to find endless reasons to explain why we are so different. In the book, Taylor introduces her service dog, Bailey and describes his aging where he becomes “inefficient” and “dependent” on Taylor due to his disability. 

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On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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