Horse in the City Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century

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 HistoryMcShane, Clay is the author of 'Horse in the City Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century', published 2007 under ISBN 9780801886003 and ISBN 0801886007.