I bought this book as part of research into zoos. It was the only book I could find on the history of zoos and how attitudes have changed towards them over the last 2 centuries. It covers zoos from the 1800's up to the modern day, and gives an idea of how zoos originally started out as private collections, was then linked to fashion, showing the most exotic, used for circus entertainment and finally up to the conservation of species. The text is generally good, but in places is quite long winded and jumpy, and often it is not clear what the author is trying to say! There are several places where the author is discussing zoos in the 1800's and within a few lines has moved on to the 1900's without any clear links as to why. However, it is a very useble book, and a nice size. It has some good pictures, though there is rather too much zoo art, and not enough of different cage designs and exhibits, for my liking.
Despit these few shortcoming, as the only book on the market I could find covering zoo history, it successfully acheives its aims of depicting changing zoos through the ages.