Preface to the Fortieth Anniversary Edition
PeopleoftenaskmewhatIwasexpectingtohappenwhen
Animal Liberation appeared forty years ago. One thing I
wasn’texpectingwasthatthebookwouldbecontinuouslyin
printforthenextfortyyears!Nor,ofcourse,wasIexpecting
ittoappearasanebook,becauseitwastypedonamanual
typewriterlongbeforetherewasanInternetoranyonehada
personal computer.
Thatisn’t,however,whatpeoplereallywanttoknow.They
wanttoknowwhatimpactIexpectedthebooktohave.On
that,myexpectationsfluctuatedbetweentwoextremes.Inmy
more optimistic moments, the arguments against our
oppression ofanimals seemed soclear and irrefutable that
surely,Ithought,apopularmovementwouldarisetoinform
people howweare treatinganimals (forthen most people
knew nothing about factory farming or the kind of
experimentsdone onanimals). This better-informed public
wouldboycott animalproducts,sothat factoryfarming, or
perhapstheentiremeatindustry,wouldshrinkandeventually
disappear,alongwiththekindofresearchonanimalsthatI
describe in chapter two.
Inmymorepessimistic(orrealistic)moments,Iunderstood
the enormity of the task facing the movement that I
envisaged.Howcanonechangehabitsaswidespreadandas
deeplyingrainedaseatingmeat?Itwouldfirstbenecessaryto
transform people’s attitudes toward animals, and these
attitudeswouldbeespeciallydifficultto changebecauseas
chaptersfiveand sixdemonstrate,peoplearevery goodat
finding rationalizations for doing what they want to do.