Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century (Animals, History, Culture) Paperback – Illustrated, June 15, 2011
Purchase options and add-ons
Honorable mention, 2007 Lewis Mumford Prize, American Society of City and Regional Planning
The nineteenth century was the golden age of the horse. In urban America, the indispensable horse provided the power for not only vehicles that moved freight, transported passengers, and fought fires but also equipment in breweries, mills, foundries, and machine shops.
Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr, prominent scholars of American urban life, here explore the critical role that the horse played in the growing nineteenth-century metropolis. Using such diverse sources as veterinary manuals, stable periodicals, teamster magazines, city newspapers, and agricultural yearbooks, they examine how the horses were housed and fed and how workers bred, trained, marketed, and employed their four-legged assets. Not omitting the problems of waste removal and corpse disposal, they touch on the municipal challenges of maintaining a safe and productive living environment for both horses and people and the rise of organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In addition to providing an insightful account of life and work in nineteenth-century urban America, The Horse in the City brings us to a richer understanding of how the animal fared in this unnatural and presumably uncomfortable setting.
- Print length280 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press
- Publication dateJune 15, 2011
- Dimensions6 x 0.62 x 9 inches
- ISBN-109781421400433
- ISBN-13978-1421400433
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
―New England Quarterly
In recent decades, such ethnic groups as Italians, African-Americans and Chinese have rightfully demanded recognition for their share in building America in the days of the Industrial Revolution. Horses clearly did as much but had no one to speak in their behalf. Now they do.
―History Wire
Overall, McShane and Tarr have written an outstanding and highly creative book. It should interest historians of cities, the environment, economics and animals.
―Journal of Economic History
Presents a rich and complex picture of nineteenth-century urban life. McShane and Tarr have given us a book that is simultaneously an urban social history, a social history of a technology, and an environmental history.
―Technology and Culture
The growth and development of the 19th-century city would have been vastly different without the horse, even though the horse's role was taken for granted by city residents and ignored by historians.
―Choice
Valuable contribution not only to urban history but also to nineteeth-century economic, business, environmental, and social history.
―Journal of Interdisciplinary History
A brilliant account of an incredibly important but understudied topic.
―John H. Hepp, IV, American Historical Review
McShane and Tarr's book, mercifully free of academic argot, a pleasure to read and full of enjoyable and surprising revelations, is welcome. And, if you'll forgive the metaphor, it covers the ground well.
―Paul Laxton, Urban History
Their work will no doubt encourage many scholars to reevaluate what they know about the physical formation of U.S. cities and what was going on in them.
―Robert Buerglener, American Quarterly
A deeply researched exploration of the intimate relationships among horses, humans, urbanization, industrialization, and reform.
―George B. Ellenberg, Agricultural History
Taken together the horse and the growth of the city fill an interesting and useful history of America. This ride is highly recommended.
―Ray B. Browne, Journal of American Culture
A valuable addition to the growing discussion of animals in history . . . the reader is left with a greater appreciation of the horse as an active participant in American history.
―Marta Knight, Economic History Review
It should be required reading for anyone interested in the environmental history of urban life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
―Brian Black, Environmental History
A fascinating story of the 'Gelded' Age.
―D. Scott Molloy, Journal of American History
A fascinating account of the role of horses in shaping the economy and society of American cities during the nineteenth century that contributes greatly to the fields of urban history, environmental history, and the history of human-animal relationships.
―Susan D. Jones, author of Valuing Animals
In this careful and richly textured book, Clay McShane and Joel Tarr have shown us how these beasts of burden helped create the modern metropolis and then disappeared from the city streets.
―Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University
This innovative and fascinating book goes to the heart of new research that connects the human and animal worlds as never before. In presenting the horse as a ‘living machine,’ McShane and Tarr help us rethink how cities were built and how they functioned in the past.
―Martin V. Melosi, University of Houston, author of The Sanitary City and Effluent America
Review
This innovative and fascinating book goes to the heart of new research that connects the human and animal worlds as never before. In presenting the horse as a ‘living machine,’ McShane and Tarr help us rethink how cities were built and how they functioned in the past.
-- Martin V. MelosiFrom the Inside Flap
Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr, prominent scholars of urban life, here explore the critical role of the horse in the growing nineteenth-century metropolis. Using diverse sources, they examine how horses were housed and fed; how workers bred, trained, marketed, and employed their four-legged assets; and how horses affected the physical form of the city.
In addition to providing an insightful account of life and work in nineteenth-century urban America, The Horse in the City brings us to a richer understanding of how the animal fared in terms of both treatment and health in this unnatural and presumably uncomfortable setting.
Presents a rich and complex picture of nineteenth-century urban life. McShane and Tarr have given us a book that is simultaneously an urban social history, a social history of a technology, and an environmental history.--Technology and Culture
Their work will no doubt encourage many scholars to reevaluate what they know about the physical formation of U.S. cities and what was going on in them.--American Quarterly
A brilliant account of an incredibly important but understudied topic.--American Historical Review
A fascinating story of the 'Gelded' Age.--Journal of American History
--Martin V. Melosi, University of Houston, author of The Sanitary City and Effluent America "Journal of American History"From the Back Cover
Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr, prominent scholars of urban life, here explore the critical role of the horse in the growing nineteenth-century metropolis. Using diverse sources, they examine how horses were housed and fed; how workers bred, trained, marketed, and employed their four-legged assets; and how horses affected the physical form of the city.
In addition to providing an insightful account of life and work in nineteenth-century urban America, The Horse in the City brings us to a richer understanding of how the animal fared in terms of both treatment and health in this unnatural and presumably uncomfortable setting.
"Presents a rich and complex picture of nineteenth-century urban life. McShane and Tarr have given us a book that is simultaneously an urban social history, a social history of a technology, and an environmental history."―Technology and Culture
"Their work will no doubt encourage many scholars to reevaluate what they know about the physical formation of U.S. cities and what was going on in them."―American Quarterly
"A brilliant account of an incredibly important but understudied topic."―American Historical Review
"A fascinating story of the 'Gelded' Age."―Journal of American History
About the Author
Joel A. Tarr is the Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2008, he received the Leonardo da Vinci Medal for lifetime achievement from the Society for the History of Technology.
Product details
- ASIN : 142140043X
- Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press; Illustrated edition (June 15, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 280 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781421400433
- ISBN-13 : 978-1421400433
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.62 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,023,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,981 in History Encyclopedias
- #7,157 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #17,830 in Ethnic Studies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
In Chapter Four, "The Horse in Leisure", the authors note a claim made Paul Shepard that "horses are inherently sensual objects because of their sleek coats and body curves and because of the genital stimulation experienced when riding". If Mr Shepard experiences genital stimulation while riding, he's doing it wrong. I would, however, agree that horse's sleek coats and curves are most attractive.
It's a good read for anyone who wants to know how horses contributed to the development of the big cities, particularly the East Coast and Chicago. I had no idea that Chicago was such a hub of horse dealing,
The development of bigger and better horse-drawn farm equipment was fascinating, as was the evolution of transportation in the city. I wish the authors had gone into more detail about some other horse-drawn machines, such as the "horse whim" on the front cover. More photographs of these amazing contraptions would have been welcome.
It was difficult to read the passages detailing the way in which the horse was commodified, purchased, used up and then discarded, but the beginnings of the various societes for prevention of cruelty were spurred by the terrible conditions under which horses labored.
This is a scholarly and interesting examination of the era when horses were the primary source of power - the "prime movers" - in our largest cities. It shows how The Horse worked itself out of its' roles and impacts in the cities in the span of less than a century. ... from shortly before the Civil War to shortly after WW I. There are plenty of dark sides to this tale.
We have long referred positively to "The Industrial Revolution"
and the "Modernization" of that era. This treatise will give the reader pause on that score. Our Civil War didn't bring racial equality and WW I didn't end all wars. Neither did "The Industrial Revolution" make our alabaster cities gleam. In Reality, they looked and seemed much more like the squalor of our (in)famous Indian Reservations. But then, The Industrial Revolution, the Modernization, perhaps more accurately named "The Dehumnization" , needed cheap, disposable power, and horses and immigrants, "voluntary", or not, filled the bill and we needed to put them somewhere.
Though not a happy tale it is well worth reading on several counts.
Percheron stallions 1850s imported from France. Good stallion could cost up to $10K then which is about $300K in todays dollars. That's stuff you don't find in other books