The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century (Animals, History, Culture)

Honorable mention, 2007 Lewis Mumford Prize, American Society of City and Regional PlanningThe 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.

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.

The Johns Hopkins University Press

"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 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."--Jacket Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Introduction. Thinking about Horses......Page 16 1 Markets: The Urban Horse as a Commodity......Page 33 2 Regulation: Controlling Horses and Their Humans......Page 51 3 Powering Urban Transit......Page 90 4 The Horse and Leisure: Serving the Needs of Different Urban Social Groups......Page 117 5 Stables and the Built Environment......Page 135 6 Nutrition: Feeding the Urban Horse......Page 160 7 Health: Equine Disease and Mortality......Page 182 8 The Decline and Persistence of the Urban Horse......Page 198 Epilogue. The Horse, the Car, and the City......Page 211 Notes......Page 216 B......Page 268 D......Page 269 G......Page 270 K......Page 271 N......Page 272 R......Page 273 S......Page 274 Z......Page 275 Photographs......Page 72