{"id":27574,"date":"2026-05-05T11:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?p=27574"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:17:08","slug":"ottawa-launch-of-cats-a-history-by-rod-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/2026\/ottawa-launch-of-cats-a-history-by-rod-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa launch of Cats: A History by Rod Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Ottawa launch of Cats: A History by Rod Phillips\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                                    \n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/roderick-phillips\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/roderick-phillips\/\">Professor Rod Phillips\u2019s<\/a> latest book, <em>Cats: A History<\/em>, will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press on 2 June 2026. It will be launched a week later in Ottawa (details below).<\/p>\n\n\n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2026\/05\/Rod-Phillips-Book-Launch-Photo.png\" alt=\"Professor Rod Phillips\u2019s latest book, Cats: A History, will be published by Johns Hopkins \" class=\"wp-image-27575\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Cats<\/em> is a history of the relationships between cats and humans from the time wildcats entered the human orbit in the Middle East about 12,000 years ago, and eventually became cats, to the present day, when there are thought to be as many as a billion feral cats, street cats, and pet cats worldwide. In between, cats have been: appreciated for protecting food supplies from rodents; associated by Christians with heresies, magic, and witches; valued and protected by Muslims; portrayed by men as aloof, deceitful, selfish, and promiscuous, and therefore as analogous to women and women\u2019s sexuality; dispersed from Europe around the world between 1500 and 1900; targeted for ritualized torture and killing, often by burning; thought of by nationalists as outsiders deserving of extermination (one Nazi referred to cats as \u201cthe Jews of the animal world\u201d); widely kept as pets from the mid-1900s; and cultural icons and stars of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cats now face existential challenges by campaigns to kill all feral cats and to confine and de-sex pet cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Cats: A History<\/em> places the tumultuous narrative of cats-humans relationships in the broad sweep of history. For more details: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.press.jhu.edu\/books\/title\/12937\/cats\">https:\/\/www.press.jhu.edu\/books\/title\/12937\/cats<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re invited to the Ottawa launch of <em>Cats<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Perfect Books, 258A Elgin Street, Ottawa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tuesday, 9 June 2026, from 7:00 to 8:30pm. (Doors open at 6:30pm)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no need to reserve a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, contact <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/roderick-phillips\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/roderick-phillips\/\">Rod Phillips<\/a> at roderick.phillips@carleton.ca<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cats is a history of the relationships between cats and humans from the time wildcats entered the human orbit in the Middle East about 12,000 years ago, and eventually became cats, to the present day, when there are thought to be as many as a billion feral cats, street cats, and pet cats worldwide. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":520,"featured_media":27575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27576,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27574\/revisions\/27576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}