NextThreeDays: Event Display

World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age
Venue: Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Date: Monday, September 29, 2025
Time: 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free

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Description:
The Center for Humanities at Virginia Tech presents "World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age," a lecture and Q&A with professor John M. Kinder at The Lyric Theatre on Monday, September 29, 2025.

John M. Kinder is a historian of war and society at Oklahoma State University, where he teaches courses on war, disability, gender, and popular culture. His most recent books are World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age (2025) and They Are Dead and Yet They Live: Civil War Memories in a Polarized America, a co-edited volume forthcoming in February 2026. He is currently writing two books: a cultural history of alligators for Reaktion Books’ "Animal" series and a true crime account about murder and execution on the Mississippi home front during World War II.

A harrowing yet surprisingly uplifting chronicle, Kinder’s "World War Zoos" traces how zoos survived the deadliest decades of global history, from the Great Depression, through the terrors of World War II, to the dawn of the Cold War. More than anything before or since, World War II represented an existential threat to the world’s zoological institutions. Some zoos were bombed; others bore the indignities of foreign occupation. Even zoos that were spared had to wrestle with questions rarely asked in public: What should they do when supplies ran low? Which animals should be killed to protect the lives of others? And how could zoos justify keeping dangerous animals that might escape and run wild during an aerial attack?

This event is free and open to all.

World War Zoos will be available for purchase at the event from Blacksburg Books.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Abigail Middleton at 540-231-2640 or amiddleton@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.

The Lyric Theatre is located at 135 College Avenue in Blacksburg, VA.

To view the event flyer, visit: https://i.postimg.cc/28gLvYBt/image.png.

For more information, visit: https://events.liberalarts.vt.edu/event/world-war-zoos-humans-and-other-animals-in-the-deadliest-conflict-of-the-modern-age-2/ or https://www.facebook.com/VTHumanities or https://www.instagram.com/vtcenterforhumanities/ or email humanities@vt.edu.