Some people think the age-old pastime of hunting is a great way to get food, while others think it is ethically reprehensible to kill Bambi just for sport. Hunting: In Search of the Wild Life examines the ethical justification of hunting and controversy while moving beyond it (“What You Can't Learn from Cartoons: Or, How to go Hunting After Watching Bambi”), to investigate why we hunt, the stereotypes of hunters, its cultural value, and the environmental issues (“Hunting:  A Return to Nature?”) associated with the practice.

Featuring contributions from a wide range of academic and non-academic sources, including both hunters and non-hunters, this book is for general readers, especially those who hunt (“Hunting for Meaning: A Glimpse of the Game”), as well as self-professed “foodies” and vegetarians (“Hunting Like a Vegetarian: Same Ethics, Different Flavors”).

The essays explore the fundamental questions of death, embodiment, nonhuman life, and morality, and the relationship of the hunter and the prey (“Flesh, Death, and Tofu: Hunters, Vegetarians, and Carnal Knowledge”).  As David Petersen writes in the foreword, “In my long and shaggy life, I’ve known no better philosophy teacher than hunting.”

Special chapters on the sub-cultures of hunting such as bow hunting (“Big Game and Little Sticks: Bow Making and Bow Hunting”), women hunters (“The New Artemis? Women Who Hunt”), trophy hunting (“Living with Dead Animals? Trophies as Souvenirs of the Hunt”), and politics (“Off the Grid: Rights, Religion and the Rise of the Eco-Gentry”), form an eclectic and comprehensive window into the world of hunting as a tradition and sport.