A look at the history of Western "civilization", and the interrelated suffering of oppressed humans and other animals. David Nibert argues that throughout history the exploitation of other animals has gone hand-in-hand with the oppression of women, people of colour, and other oppressed groups.

Nibert suggests that the liberation of devalued groups of humans is unlikely in a world that uses other animals as fodder for the continual growth and expansion of transnational corporations and, conversely, that animal liberation cannot take place when humans continue to be exploited and oppressed.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Toward A Sociological Analysis of Animal Oppression
2 Economic Basis of Animal Oppression
3 Capitalist Expansion and Oppression
4 The Growth of Agribusiness and Global Oppression
5 Oppression and the Capitalist State
6 The Social Construction of Specialist Reality
7 Toward A United Struggle Against Oppression.