Horses at Work

[Mark Cowdrey]

I have just finished reading a book that I found extremely valuable for placing the use of horses for tractive power in both a historical and contemporary context. ”Horses at Work; Harnessing Power in Industrial America” by Ann Norton Greene, Harvard University Press, 2008,
( http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674031296)
is a comprehensive study of the rise of the role working horses in 19th century America and their decline in the early 20th century. From the indispensable role of supporting the expansion of stream power to the eerily familiar constructed social arguments in favor of the automobile over the horse, Greene examines the economic and cultural factors that shaped, and were shaped by the working horse. Perhaps inevitably I often tend to think of “the old days”, before my existence, as being somewhat static. Regarding types, numbers, uses and social attitudes towards horses Greene shows that it was a dynamic, sometimes fast moving, situation.
I highly recommend this book.
Mark

[Carl Russell]

Thanks Mark, how did you come across it? Recommended, or just in your own searching?

Carl

[Mark Cowdrey]

It belonged to Ann Hawthorne, who had a hand in editing it, and was given to me by Peter D.
So it was serendipitous, if there truly is such a thing in our cosmos…
Mark

[Author]

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