The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century

Animals, History, Culture

by Clay McShane, Joel Tarr, Harriet Ritvo (Editor)

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.

Genres: History, American History, Animals, Transport

242 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Duck Hollow Farm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides excellent statistical information, much of it difficult to find. That said, I have a major problem with this book in that the authors are obviously not experienced horsemen. Although I'm grateful for the factual information, I tend to be suspicious when authors are working outside their area of expertise.

For example, page 85 contains this line: "The noted Paul ecologist Paul Shepard has claimed that horses are inherently sensual object because of their sleek coats and body curves and because of the GENITAL STIMULATION [emphasis added] experienced when riding" (85).

Genital stimulation? Genital bruising is certainly a concern for men and chafing of the crotch can be a concern for women, but the mere idea of genital stimulation left me blinking. I've ridden for over half a century and taught riding for over thirty years and I have no idea where Shepard, who had a whole set of strange ideas about horses, came up with this whopper.

The line appears in Shepard's _The Others_ and when I've read this line to other horsemen, they've broken up laughing, rolled their eyes, or said something to the effect "Never even petted a horse, huh?" That McShane and Tarr used this line in an otherwise good book tells me they too are solid academics, but not even novice horsemen.

Still, I'm grateful for the leg work the authors did on the subject. The statistical info alone makes the book worth a read.

[Fran Jurga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my go-to books for history research on urban horses in the United States. It was a great loss when Professor McShane died. I am always aware that he is not sentimental about horses, and in fact seems to be more interested in urban technology than in horses themselves. But that may be why his articles and this book are so valuable. I think he and Joel Tarr oversimplified the disappearance of horses from city streets and gave too much credit to people and businesses switching to auto power,as if it was a choice.

In reality, I believe the horses were forced from the city, first by the paving of streets to make smooth going for autos (horses had been accommodated by cobblestone traction for many years), and also by the demolition of public troughs and fountains, making it much more difficult for drivers to water their horses during the work day.

There's no nostalgia for old Dobbin in this book, no sighs, no lamenting the past. Just lots of good facts and figures and dates and references where you can read more. More romantic views of the horse in the city are available elsewhere.

[Dan Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE book for understanding how the horse fit into city life. Many years ago, Joel Tarr became famous (in a very small circle) as the "horsesh*t" scholar for an article that calculated the amount of waste left by horses on city streets. This book is, in a way, the capstone of that original research question.

The book may be heavy going for some, but it is so comprehensive and explores areas you might not otherwise think about. For example, they (McShane and Tarr) look at how horses were bred for city work. They note that manure had an economic value and that stable manure sold for more than street manure. The cover image of horses moving a house says a lot about the many ways horses provided power -- not just pulling wagons and carriages -- that we don't think about.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read this immediately after Greene's "Horses at Work," I can't help but compare the two. In that balance, this book is the drier, but mostly because it's stuffed full of fascinating statistics and more fine-grained detail about economic changes: location and construction of stables, the expansion of the suburbs, and the development of grain markets and logistics. The former has more narrative; this one has more background.

[Jon Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most authoritative source on horse manure in 19th-c urban streets.

[Meesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

the fifty pages of references at the end of this book are evidence of how extensive the research was. happy for its existence, i learned so much.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

We typically think of the nineteenth century as the era when machine power finally replaced animal power. The invention of the steam engine and its elaboration supposedly ended the dominance of horses, mules, and oxen in transport and production.

Clay McShane and Joel Tarr show that the opposite actually happened. The number of people per horse in the major industrial cities went from about 40 down to about 25, and this when those cities' populations expanded several times over. By almost any measure the 19th century was the "golden age of the horse." There were not only more of them, but they were also larger, stronger, better fed, better taken care of, and more essential to civilization than ever before. When the 1872 epizootic (a equine influenza) swept the nation, horsecar transit systems ground to a halt, factories closed, and goods transport almost ceased.

Some of this book covers old ground, especially in regards to horsecar history, but discussions of the centrality of the stable (they were about one out of ever 25 buildings, and everybody hated being near them), and on the massive hay trade required to feed the cities' horses, are well-researched and original. The discussion of Henry Bergh, the publicity-seeking monarchist who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals, is also fascinating.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just 100-odd years ago horses were a mainstay in America's cities. This book looks at the various roles the horse played in city life: pulling streetcars and delivery carts, as well as rich folk's fancy coaches. Looks at all aspects of the city horse: where and how they were bred, fed, stabled, over-worked, and finally what to do with a dead horse abandoned in the street. Very interesting but the narrative is a bit too scholarly at times.

Reread this book in the Fall of 2016...just to reacquaint myself with the late 19th/early 20th century world of horse-powered transport, before the advent and domination of the automobile and the internal combustion engine. One thing I noticed on this second reading was how much our large cities were built around the horse and horse-powered transport. Usually we attribute the rise of suburbs to the automobile, but suburban development actually began during the horse age and depended upon the development of mass-transit lines.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

I was expecting something slightly less dry.

[Emily Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best nonfiction book I've read in a long time!! I'm not a horse person but every part of this book is fascinating.

[Collette Mcdonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative. I am a history lover and a horse nut so a great read for me. I would have liked to see the author use more cities in the work.