Horses in Society

'Written with authority, practical knowledge, and enthusiasm, Horses in Society is more than a merely "horsey" book. While it deals exhaustively with the market-driven world of breeding, it also illuminates broader aspects of the economy, society, and culture of the Victorian world. Social attitudes, eugenics, and prejudice towards the horse economy in the pre-1918 era are all included in a text rich with interest.' -- Richard Moore-Colyer, Department of History, University of Wales 'This is a marvelous, original book on the history of horse breeding and its interplay with the horse markets in the United States, Britain, and Canada. I know of no other book like it for this period. Derry draws effectively on a stunning array of primary sources - including government reports, farmers' journals and magazines, the histories of various horse breeds, and relevant works on the history of genetics and biology - while taking into account the limited secondary literature. This book is a tour de force, and constitutes a significant contribution to scholarship.' -- Daniel J. Kevles, Department of History, Yale University

Derry’s fascinating study is also a story of the evolution of animal medicine and humanitarian movements, and of international relations, particularly between Canada and the United States.

Before crude oil and the combustion engine, the industrialized world relied on a different kind of power - the power of the horse. Horses in Society is the story of horse production in the United States, Britain, and Canada at the height of the species' usefulness, the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century. Margaret E. Derry shows how horse breeding practices used during this period to heighten the value of the animals in the marketplace incorporated a intriguing cross section of influences, including Mendelism, eugenics, and Darwinism.

Derry elucidates the increasingly complex horse world by looking at the international trade in army horses, the regulations put in place by different countries to enforce better horse breeding, and general aspects of the dynamics of the horse market. Because it is a story of how certain groups attempted to control the market for horses, by protecting their breeding activities or 'patenting' their work, Horses in Society provides valuable background information to the rapidly developing present-day problem of biological ownership. Derry's fascinating study is also a story of the evolution of animal medicine and humanitarian movements, and of international relations, particularly between Canada and the United States.