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 History
