Professor Emeritus of History and Anthropology
ttraut@umich.edu
Education/Degree:
BA Beloit College, 1962Ph.D. University of London, 1968
Highlighted Work and Publications
Elephants and Kings: An Environmental History
Thomas R. Trautmann
Because of their great size, elephants have been attractive to kings as symbols of their own eminence. In the early civilizations kings have used elephants in royal sacrifices, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, and the conspicuous consumption of ivory—practices tending toward the elephant’s extinction. But Indian kings, recruiting adult wild elephants to be trained for use in war, had an interest in protecting wild elephants and their habitat as a military store. The institution of the war elephant spread to the west, where elephants took part in some of the...
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India: Brief History of a Civilization
Thomas R. Trautmann
Five thousand years of the history of Indian civilization are covered in a short book (c. 250 pp.) that can be read in a few sittings. It is intended as a first book for students, giving them a map of the whole and preparing them for more advanced and specialized works.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of Publication: 2016 (second edition)
Location: New York
ISBN: 978-0-19-020249-1
