“This handsome book offers a telling glimpse into the often-charged world of horse breeding and horse trading in North America and Britain between 1800 and 1920.”
Lawrence Scanlan, The Globe and Mail
“A full and complex picture of horse culture.”
Karen Raber, American Historical Review
“Although draft animals have often been treated as footnotes to the rise of the machine, Margaret Derry demonstrates how a detailed treatment of horses can deepen the historical understanding of American and European societies.”
George B. Ellenberg
“Horses in Society is a lucid and thoughtful journey into the world of the horse at its short-lived zenith, and of the society that honoured and sustained it.”
Max Foran, University of Toronto Quarterly
“Margaret E. Derry’s Horses in Society is a remarkably interesting read ... This is a ground-breaking work that will resonate with social, business, and military historians alike.”
Warren M. Elofson, Business History Review
“An extremely valuable book that brings the history of science to bear on horse-breeding literature and sets both within the context of modern political economy.”
Ann N. Greene, Canadian Historical Review
“Horses in Society is a valuable contribution that will interest historians of science and technology, military historians, and anyone interested in the history of animals, economics or the nineteenth century in general.”
Darcy Ingram, Scientia Canadensis
‘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
‘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
