Description
Book SynopsisWe force them into crowded, sedentary lives. We harvest their eggs and artificially inseminate them. We fill them with hormones and antibiotics, and we feed them manufactured pellets instead of the food they were meant to eat. They are commercialized and scientized—in many ways, just like us. Laurie Winn Carlson's intriguing book examines in fascinating detail the relationship between people and domesticated cattle, a resource that has been vital to civilization but long ignored and neglected. She considers the impact of science, technology, and economics on cattle, and how they in turn have influenced human history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, she shows how cattle have been worshipped in some cultures and become a symbol of pastoral freedom in others; what links them to women and the family; how the beef and dairy industries developed in Europe and the New World; how butter influenced the Protestant Reformation; how the cattle cultures helped settle North America; how meat became industrialized and margarine appeared as the first plastic food; and how science today continues to transform the lives of cattle and their connection to human beings. "With our problematic technology," Ms. Carlson writes, "beef—and milk—is now a food that engages plenty of concern, conflict, and fear. We are absolutely dependent upon cattle. We just don't realize how imperative it is that we protect them from further genetic and biologic degradation." Her book is serious social history spiced with rich anecdotes and surprising historical facts. With developing concern world-wide about livestock disease, Cattle could not be more timely.
Trade ReviewWith this book in hand we no longer have to search encyclopedias and extract hunks of material on cattle ranching. * Buckskin Bulletin *
Entertaining and informative...readers learn more than they ever imagined wanting to know about cattle, but not more than they should. -- Danise Hoover * Booklist *
This is the first book of its kind and well deserves to be widely read. -- Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago
Balanced, intelligent, and seasoned with telling anecdotes. -- Linda M. Hasselstrom, author of
Windbreak: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains
Far from a humdrum book about cows, this book will open even jaundiced eyes. -- Larry McMurtry
A wholly wonderful essay! -- Guy Davenport * Harpers Wine & Spirit *
The author has written a most interesting factual, well-documented book on cattle history. * Journal of the West *
A provocative discussion that is bound to engage readers from outside academic circles. -- Julia H. Haggerty * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
