{"product_id":"ivorys-ghosts-the-white-gold-of-history-and-the-fate-of-elephants-9780871139955","title":"Ivory's Ghosts: The White Gold of History and the Fate of Elephants","description":"\u003cp\u003eLong before gold and gemstones held allure  humans were drawn to the jewels of the elephantits great tusksfor their beauty  rarity  and ability to be finely carved. In Ivorys Ghosts  John Frederick Walker tells the astonishing story of the human lust for ivory and its cataclysmic implications for elephants. Each age and each culture  from ancient Egypt to nineteenth-century America and modern Japan  found its own artistic  religious  and even industrial uses for the remarkable material that comes from the teeth of elephants and a handful of other mammals. Sensuous figurines  scientific instruments  pistol grips  and piano keys were all the resultas was human enslavement and the wholesale slaughter of elephants. By the 1980s  elephant poaching threatened the last great herds of the African continent and led to a worldwide ban on international trade. But the ban has failed to stop poaching  and debate continues over what to do with the legitimate and growing stockpiles of ivory recovered from elephants that die of natural causes. An insightful history of this precious commodity  Ivorys Ghosts is also a wrenchingand utterly compellingargument for a controversial mode of wildlife conservation: a controlled return to the ivory trade.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45118117707829,"sku":"ByrdShop_0871139952","price":29.9,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780871139955.jpg?v=1781696504","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/ivorys-ghosts-the-white-gold-of-history-and-the-fate-of-elephants-9780871139955","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}