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The domestic dog's descent from the wolf is an accepted part of evolution, but the question of how the wolf became the dog has remained a mystery, and the subject of myth and legend. How the Dog Became the Dog shows that the dog's domestication was both a biological and cultural process. At the end of the last Ice Age, the first dogs emerged with their human companions from refuge against the cold. It was only in the eighteenth century that humans began to exercise full control of dog reproduction, life and death, to complete the domestication of the wolf, begun so long ago.
Mark Derr is the author of Dog's Best Friend and A Dog's History of America. He writes regularly for Atlantic Monthly, Natural History, Smithsonian and The New York Times. He lives in Florida.
"In his latest book, renowned author and dog expert, Mark Derr, shows that one can be scientifically rigorous and still write a highly engaging and accessible account of how the dog became the dog [...] If you have to decide which dog book to read among the many that are available, this clearly is the one to choose because of its scientific accuracy and easy-to-read style."
- Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals
"Derr's real affinity for canines comes through strongly, and the book should appeal to dog lovers with a curiosity about the origins of their favourite companion."
- Publishers Weekly
"The most important book written on the subject since Konrad Lorenz wrote Man Meets Dog in 1949. This book will fascinate anyone who has ever loved a dog"
- Scottie Westfall, author of the Retrieverman blog
"A particularly ambitious and detailed version of how the wandering wolf became the drifting dog [...] Derr isn't just a dog fancier, one realizes, but a kind of dog nationalist [...] Dogs began as allies, not pets and friends, not dependents."
- Adam Gopnik, The NewYorker
