Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America

• Publisher:   Harvard University Press
• Number Of Pages:   336
• Publication Date:   2008-11-30
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0674031296
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780674031296

Historians have long assumed that new industrial machines and power sources eliminated work animals from nineteenth-century America, yet a bird’s-eye view of nineteenth-century society would show millions of horses supplying the energy necessary for industrial development. Horses were ubiquitous in cities and on farms, providing power for transportation, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. On Civil War battlefields, thousands of horses labored and died for the Union and the Confederacy hauling wagons and mechanized weaponry.

The innovations that brought machinery to the forefront of American society made horses the prime movers of these machines for most of the nineteenth century. Mechanization actually increased the need for horsepower by expanding the range of tasks requiring it. Indeed, the single most significant energy transition of the antebellum era may have been the dramatic expansion in the use of living, breathing horses as a power technology in the development of industrial America.

Ann Greene argues for recognition of horses’ critical contribution to the history of American energy and the rise of American industrial power, and a new understanding of the reasons for their replacement as prime movers. Rather than a result of “inevitable” technological change, it was Americans’ social and political choices about power consumption that sealed this animal’s fate. The rise and fall of the workhorse was defined by the kinds of choices that Americans made and would continue to make—choices that emphasized individual mobility and autonomy, and assumed, above all, abundant energy resources.

This is a tremendous book! It is one of the best American history books I have read since1776andWashington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History). Among many other things it explains: how difficult intercity travel was until 1890's, the relationship of the railroads and horse drawn transport, the development of horse breeds, horse drawn logistics in the civil war and much, much more. Those who might be especially appreciate this book would be those interested in: farming, urban development, history of transportation & logistics, or horses. It is an interdisciplinary masterpiece

I thought I had read all there was to read on the history of working horses in America, but this book proved that I should keep reading, with the hope that authors like Greene keep writing. Instead of setting a nostalgic goodbye-to-horses scene, Greene proposes that the process of industrializing America couldn't have happened without horses, every step of the way. She even proposes that the Great Depression was partly caused by the lapse in agriculture when horse feed and grain demands dropped off precipitously. My favorite chapter was on the Civil War, when she points out the North's advantage of machine-made horseshoes and 1000-horses-to-a-paddock remount stations. Never sentimental, Greene methodically makes the case for the horse as a tool that was used on many fronts, in many guises. I suspect the scenario she paints in late 19th century America is still the paradigm in many third world countries. Horses have never stopped working in most places in the world but this snapshot of our industrial-age past shows where horses helped make it all possible, contrary to many other accounts that paint an abrupt transition from the horse-and-buggy-age to the machine age.

The industrial history of the horse would not seem, at first blush, to be a fascinating subject. But in the hands of Ann Norton Greene, it is! Greene has managed to dig about troves of information about the role of horses and other equines in 19th century America. She demonstrates their central role in economic development but also stress related social dimensions. Give this book a try. If you have any interest in 19th century U.S. history, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

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