An award-winning historian tells the story of hunting in America, showing how this sport has shaped our national identity. From Daniel Boone to Teddy Roosevelt, hunting is one of America's most sacred-but also most fraught-traditions. It was promoted in the 19th century as a way to reconnect "soft" urban Americans with nature and to the legacy of the country's pathfinding heroes. Fair chase, a hunting code of ethics emphasizing fairness, rugged independence, and restraint towards wildlife, emerged as a worldview and gave birth to the conservation movement. But the sport's popularity also caused class, ethnic, and racial divisions, and stirred debate about the treatment of Native Americans and the role of hunting in preparing young men for war. This sweeping and balanced book offers a definitive account of hunting in America. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of our nation's foundational myths.

In simple but powerful text, the ethical way to hunt is described from preparation to shooting to care after the shot.

This is the classic treatise on hunting, written by Spain's leading philosopher of the 20th century. Reprinted with permission from Scribner, this edition features handsome new illustrations. The author explains the reason why humans hunt, as well as the ethics of hunting.

A sequel to the best-selling Beyond Fair Chase, this book examines the unique heritage of hunting in North America and the challenges facing hunters at the close of the 20th century. In a simple but powerful style that draws on his personal experiences and his scholarly research, Jim Posewitz makes the case that hunting in North America is a remarkable expression of democracy with its roots in the American struggle for independence. (4 1/4 x 6, 128 pages, illustrations)

Records of North American Whitetail Deer is the definitive history book of trophy whitetail deer in North America. This greatly expanded fourth edition features: Over 7,500 listings of whitetail deer from the Boone and Crockett Club's Records Program dating back to the late 1800s up through December 31, 2002; that's nearly double the entries from the previous edition published just seven years ago. Over 35 new state and provincial records; geographic analysis of each state in the U.S., highlighting the top trophy-producing counties; individual state and provincial lists of typical and non-typical whitetail and Coues' deer; photos of all the state, provincial, and Mexican typical and non-typical whitetail deer records; numerous field photos of trophy quality whitetail deer; reproductions of typical and non-typical whitetail deer score charts with basic scoring instructions.

THE WILD DUCK CHASE is the basis for “The Million Dollar Duck,” a documentary feature film, directed by Brian Golden Davis and written by Martin J. Smith, premiering at The Slamdance Film Festival in January 2016. The book takes readers into the peculiar world of competitive duck painting as it played out during the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest-the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government. Since 1934, the duck stamp, which is bought annually by hunters to certify their hunting license, has generated more than $750 million, and 98 cents of each collected dollar has been used to help purchase or lease 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the United States. As Martin J. Smith chronicles in his revealing narrative, within the microcosm of the duck stamp contest are intense ideological and cultural clashes between the mostly rural hunters who buy the stamps and the mostly suburban and urban birders and conservationists who decry the hunting of waterfowl. The competition also fuels dynamic tensions between competitors and judges, and among the invariably ambitious, sometimes obsessive and eccentric artists--including Minnesota's three fabled Hautman brothers, the "New York Yankees" of competitive duck painting. Martin Smith takes readers down an arcane and uniquely American rabbit hole into a wonderland of talent, ego, art, controversy, scandal, big money, and migratory waterfowl.