By Alex Fox Photograph by Sebastian Kennerknecht Dotty, a female Bengal tiger, roams her territory in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park, where tigers are one of the biggest tourist attractions.

"The historical record overwhelmingly favors the view," asserts Dutch scholar Peter Boomgaard in his new book Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, 1600-1950 (Yale University ...